Perfect
by CaramelApple74
Summary: When Karofsky's bullying becomes too much to handle, Kurt joins a boxing gym to learn how to fight. There he meets his trainer, Blaine, who hides behind a tough and confident mask when really he's just as abused and broken as Kurt. Together, the two fight to survive vicious boxing matches, high school, the prejudiced people of Lima, and their growing feelings for each other.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or the characters in it, I only made the plot for this story. However, if I did own Glee, I'd be rich as hell and able to do all kinds of cool stuff, like get out of jail early for the stupid crime I would have committed like celebrities and people with a lot of money do. But instead, I'm a girl who's broke and trying to finish her education and would probably even get more charges if I ever went to jail- which I swear, I haven't... yet- for saying some snarky comment to the police officer because I'm really sarcastic and witty and like to make good use of my extensive vocabulary. So no, I don't own Glee. You would have heard about my arrest on the news by now if I did own Glee, because I'm sure it would be funny as hell and nobody would ever stop laughing because I'd probably get arrested for something like spitting gum on the sidewalk and a duck stepped in it and got stuck, then a bicyclist ran over the duck because it wouldn't move and the guy fell over and ran into an old woman who fell into the street and got hit by a car and it would all be my fault because I spit gum on the sidewalk. Please don't sue me. **

**WARNING: This fic will contain violence, smut, bad language and some homophobia... other stuff too probably, but I'll add in the warnings as I go.**

_SLAM_

The sound of Kurt Hummel being shoved against his locker reverberated throughout the halls of William McKinley High School, but nobody spared the boy a glance or even batted an eyelash at the familiar noise. Why would they though? Kurt was the only outed gay kid at the school, and those who didn't find the thought of him disgusting cared too much about their reputation to stand up for him. This was middle-of-nowhere Ohio after all, and Lima was practically home of the homophobes. The only people who would defend Kurt were his fellow Glee Club members, but none of them were in sight and most of them got bullied, too.

The world was a cruel place oftentimes. It was survival of the fittest, and the weaker people were easily targeted and used as punching bags for those stronger who felt entitled to do so and above all others. High school was definitely the worst and most commonplace location for such blatant acts of maliciousness. Everyone was part of a food chain, and you were either popular and on the very top, normal and near the middle, or seen as dirt on the bottom of people's shoes and treated just like it. And once you were at the bottom, there was no chance of ever moving up because you had already become permanently labeled.

The reason Kurt doesn't believe in God is because every time he used to pray for something- _anything_ -to go right for him, for his bullying to cease, for people to simply treat him as an equal and not an abomination, nothing ever happened. Not a single thing. If a God did exist, then he would have acknowledged Kurt's pleas and help him or at least ease his pain a fractional amount. Kurt's prayers had always been met with silence and the continuous nightmare he lived in called reality.

Fear gripped Kurt as it usually did whenever he looked up to see the sneering faces of Karofsky and his cronies after they harassed him in some way or another. It was the threatening smirks and burning hatred in their eyes directed at him that he found highly disturbing on multiple levels, and those were what got to him the most. They took bullying to the extreme, and found a perverse pleasure in the fear they elicited from their victims. Fear was a constant in Kurt's life, and the majority of it stemmed from the jocks and the knowledge of what they were capable of doing to him if given the chance. Kurt's biggest fear was that one day someone would take the bullying too far and there'd be no witnesses.

"See you later, fairy," Karofsky spat as he shoved Kurt once more for good measure before stalking off.

This time Kurt's cheek caught on the locker vent, the sharp metal effectively slicing his skin. He brought a hand up and gingerly touched the fresh wound, wincing as it stung. His fingers were coated in blood after he pulled them away. Tears pooled in his eyes and threatened to fall, so he quickly readjusted the strap of the satchel on his shoulder before sprinting through the hall to the boy's bathroom.

Kurt took his time to properly clean the cut with the first-aid kit he kept in his bag, fretting the whole time over how deep it was. He hoped it didn't scar and cause an unsightly mark that would be a pain to hide everyday for the rest of his life. The other wounds and scars that accumulated on him from various dumpster tosses and locker shoves he could hide with clothing, but one on his face may very well be the end of him and his perfect and unblemished complexion.

Once he got his injury to stop bleeding and put the kit back away, Kurt gripped the edges of the bathroom sink so hard that his knuckles turned white, and he gritted his teeth in an attempt to keep the sob making its way to the top of his throat from escaping. Kurt reached his breaking point a long time ago, had long passed being able to tolerate any little thing that goes wrong because he lost all senses of coping. He was broken now, and it seemed as if his shattered remains were irreparable.

His emotions were all over the place these days, and he couldn't find a sole one to describe his feelings. Most of the time it felt like thoughts and plans for New York in just over a year and the solace he found in singing were the only things keeping him sane. How long those would continue to be enough though, he wasn't sure.

Kurt was alone in the bathroom at the moment, but with his luck someone would come barging in and make fun of him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to prepare himself to go back into the bustling hallway. He could do this. He could get through the day then return home where his father, Carole and Finn would be, where his only safe haven was. Karofsky couldn't get to Kurt at his house, and there were only two classes left until he could go there. He could do this.

Kurt left the bathroom, somewhat reluctantly, and cautiously stepped out into the hall. It was only about three seconds before someone roughly and purposefully bumped into him, shooting him a dirty look as if it was his fault.

Suddenly the air around Kurt became thick, making it difficult for him to breathe, he began shaking, and everything became blurry and distorted. He was having a panic attack, or at the very least on the verge of one. He couldn't do this, he needed to leave this building that now felt overwhelmingly confining and get some fresh air, his classes and the late bell that just rang be damned.

Kurt ran out of the building, past his Navigator in the parking lot, and out of school boundaries altogether. He didn't have a destination in mind or a certain direction, he just ran.

The crisp afternoon air filled his lungs and he gladly welcomed it, letting the faintest of smiles flicker across his face briefly since he could breathe properly again. The wind swirled around him and made his vision clear, but the shaking didn't stop. Kurt focused on the rhythmic sounds his shoes pounding on the pavement and the cars zooming past him made. People gave him strange looks as he sped past them and they had to dodge out of the way to avoid being run into, but he paid them little to no attention. He didn't know how long he ran or how far he traveled, he just stopped when he couldn't run anymore, when the stitch that formed in his side became unbearable.

Kurt slowed to a stop and put his hands on his knees as he panted and tried to catch his breath. He ran for quite a long time, and the distance would wind anybody if they didn't stop for any breaks like him.

Once his breath was steady and even again and he didn't feel dizzy or like passing out, Kurt looked at his surroundings and attempted to figure out exactly where he was. He appeared to be in some rundown area that had a plethora of dilapidated homes and businesses and sketchy looking people roaming the streets. This wasn't a good area, and he didn't know how to get out.

"Great," Kurt muttered under his breath.

Calling any of his friends to pick him up wasn't an option because they were all still in class, and Carole and his dad were both at work and would undoubtedly murder him anyways if they found out he left school. Getting a cab would probably be his best bet, and just as Kurt was searching for the number on his phone something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.

There was an old, faded sign in front of the building next to him This place in particular was actually the worst looking one on the block with its white paint peeling off and chunks of the wall missing. One of the windows looked like it had a rock thrown through it, and the splintered wooden door seemed as if it could collapse if the wind blew hard enough. The sign though, it drew Kurt's attention and kept it. This could be just what he needed, or at least an outlet for all his frustrations.

Kurt slipped his phone back into his pocket and walked up to the door. Once he gripped the handle he felt a sense of belonging wash over him, something up until this point he'd never truly felt. Figgins said he couldn't do anything about Karofsky, and Kurt was fed up his bullying. Kurt prided himself on being a non-violent person, but this was too much, he had to take matters into his own hands. He was done being civil, and this place just might be able to help him with his predicament.

Kurt took one last, deep breath, then opened the door to Cooper Jay's Boxing Gym.

* * *

A/N:

Soooo... was it good? Bad? Let me know!

I've had this story idea bouncing around in my head for weeks now and said that I'd wait to finish one of my other fics before writing it, but the thought of waiting became unbearable! I think I've bitten off wayyy more than I can chew with this now, but I already started so there's no going back! I'm writing another fic besides this one, my novel, and a smaller piece of writing I just started working on. Four pieces of major writing! Oh hell...

I'll update this once or twice a week most likely :) I'm going to write more chapters now and just save them so that I don't get behind like with my other writing...

I appreciate all feedback and will thank you by mentioning your username in the end author's notes of every chapter if you're a new follower/favoriter/reviewer!

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Next update MIGHT be tomorrow if I'm feeling generous.

~CaramelApple74~


	2. Chapter 2

Kurt tentatively stepped into the gym and glanced around, feeling more than a little surprised at what he saw. The inside of Cooper Jay's Boxing Gym looked nothing like the outside of it did. While the paint and flooring wasn't brand new it certainly wasn't dull or worn out, the cream colored walls complementing the hardwood floors rather nicely in fact. There was a vast array of boxing equipment evenly spread throughout the large, open room, and a ring that appeared well taken care of. Sounds of fists pounding on punching bags and grunts as men and women exerted their energy into their workouts echoed loudly, but the sounds were pleasant. The place was inviting in a strange, yet unique way.

Everything gave Kurt a new found determination, and he was instantly motivated. The end of junior year was nearing, and he'd have all summer to get stronger. With the right training and overall knowledge of defense, he'd finally be able to fight Karofsky back when the brute assaulted him. He wouldn't know what hit him.

"You don't belong around here," a voice said matter-of-factly to the left of Kurt, cutting him out of his wandering thoughts.

Kurt whipped around to see who spoke to him, and came face-to-face with a man in around his mid-twenties who was wearing a tight, black t-shirt with the business logo on it, dark blue jeans, and a pair of brown work boots. He found him quite intimidating with his short cropped hair and cold gleam in his eyes, and the noticeable height difference between the two in favor of the other man didn't help any.

"What?" Kurt asked innocently. He felt like a deer in headlights peering up at this man who came out of seemingly nowhere. The slight condescending tone of his voice was also unnerving.

"You heard what I said the first time, kid. What are you doing around here?"

"Oh, I umm, I-I got lost but then saw the sign outside and want to join," Kurt stuttered. "Do you work here?" He internally groaned as soon as the words left his mouth. The guy was wearing a business shirt, of course he worked here.

The man looked at Kurt skeptically for a few minutes and remained silent. Kurt shifted uncomfortably under his scrutinizing gaze and diverted his attention to the floor, not having the courage to make eye contact. He was surveying Kurt like he was some creature that just fell out of the sky and landed in front of him, which Kurt wasn't too keen about.

"No, I own the place," he finally said.

"So you're Cooper?"

"What the hell do you think?"

"Sorry," Kurt replied quickly, not wanting to offend the owner. He already had a feeling Cooper didn't think too highly of him for some reason, and he didn't want to add to anything and not be allowed at this gym that was probably his only chance at getting the upper hand over his bullies.

"Are you serious about joining? We don't get people like you in this part of the city," Cooper said while eyeing Kurt's designer outfit and perfectly coiffed hair.

"Yes, and I want a trainer if you have any available please."

Cooper was silent yet again as he looked at Kurt, trying to figure out just what to do with him. The boy was definitely not a fighter- that much was obvious -and it would take a damn miracle to turn him into one. There was, however, something about the kid that made him consider helping him; he reminded him of his little brother. The kid was more transparent than plastic wrap, and Cooper could tell he was gay and likely bullied for it if his frightened expression and lack of confidence was anything to go by. Under normal circumstances he'd train the boy himself, but he had someone more fit for him in mind. Yes, he decided he would help this boy, and maybe if they were all lucky the whole thing might not turn into a train wreck.

"You start tomorrow. Blaine will be your trainer."

Blaine. The name had an amiable ring to it, but the possibility that the guy could be just as intimidating as Cooper, if not more, wasn't to be overlooked. "Great, how much does he charge?"

"The gym costs forty a month, and I believe Blaine charges sixty-five a week. Tomorrow's Friday, so be here at four," Cooper answered as he glanced around his gym, narrowing his eyes when he spotted two men across from him sparring without boxing gloves.

"Perfect, when do I pay you?"

"When you come in tomorrow," Cooper replied before walking away to the other end of the room where the two men were fighting.

Kurt took that as his cue to leave, though he wasn't sure how he felt about being dismissed like he was. Nevertheless, he had shopping to do now, and the sooner he could get to his car to drive to the mall the better. He turned towards the door to leave and find the nearest street sign so he could call and notify a cab of where to pick him up, not wanting to waste anymore time than necessary.

But before he left, Kurt glanced around the gym once more, soaking everything up, for tomorrow he'd be viewing and experiencing what it had to offer in a different perspective.

* * *

The moment the final bell rang at school the next day, Kurt rose from his seat and swiftly made his way out of his last classroom and to his car. He was a ball of nerves and anxiousness, and it was a wonder he hadn't spontaneously combusted yet. But he was excited too, it was just that excitement was far down on the list of things he was feeling. He'd never been to a gym before, instead preferring to workout in the comfort and privacy of his own bedroom, so he didn't know what to expect on his first day of training. His family and friends were in the dark about the boxing gym, and while Kurt was well aware that wasn't a very smart move he'd rather feel guilty than risk Karofsky finding out what he was planning.

On his shopping excursion the previous afternoon, Kurt bought a new pair of cross trainers, some basketball shorts, and white and black tank tops. He noticed that most of the guys at the gym went shirtless, but he didn't feel like putting the cuts and bruises scattered all over his body on display, instead opting to at least mildly blend in with other gym-goers with his choice of clothing. It was obvious that the injuries covering him were from being pushed around and he didn't want to immediately be pegged as a weakling; his embarrassingly bad fighting skills would make him an outcast already.

Kurt pulled up to the seemingly rundown gym after getting lost a few times along the way- not a good scenario considering this was a ghetto neighborhood -and saw that he had twenty minutes to change out after a quick look at his watch. He made sure the Navigator's windows were rolled up all the way, there were no valuables in sight, and that all the doors were locked once he stepped out of the car. He bit his lower lip and looked warily at his surroundings, stiffening when he saw a group of older men eyeing his car and himself appraisingly. Trying not to appear afraid, he steeled himself and strode to the gym doors, hoping his car didn't get broken into and was still parked at the curb when he got out.

There were more people at the gym today than yesterday, and he had to jump out of the way once to avoid being hit in the face by two men throwing punches at each other. Being hooked in the eye wasn't an appealing thought. His quest to the locker rooms was more like getting lost in a maze than anything, but he eventually found them after some clueless searching. The heavy smell of sweat and what Kurt could only guess to be death assaulted his nose upon entering the room, and he had to fight down the sudden urge to gag. It was quickly decided that he'd hold his breath and change as fast as possible. This of course earned him a few odd looks from other men changing, and he blushed bright red before making a hasty exit.

It was 4 o'clock on the dot according to the clock on the wall in front of Kurt, and he had no idea how to find his trainer. He should've asked to arrange a meeting spot yesterday, but it was too late now. Maybe Cooper could help him.

When he started in the general direction of the front desk Kurt bumped into something solid, and his breath caught in his throat at the sight he was met with as he glanced up. Deep, mesmerizing hazel eyes locked with his and glinted with something he couldn't place, but they were the first thing he noticed. After miraculously finding the strength to break his gaze, Kurt got a better look at this stranger and saw that he had dark, thick, curly hair and defined facial features that easily made up the handsomest face to grace the planet. His eyes wandered down further on their own accord, and he saw that the stranger wasn't wearing a shirt and happened to be extremely muscular.

Kurt didn't even realize he'd stumbled backwards until he noticed he was subconsciously attempting to steady himself. He'd run into the most gorgeous guy he'd ever seen.

"Sorry man," the hotter than hell guy said as he took a step back. "Oh, have you by any chance seen some guy wearing a scarf and skinny jeans probably? My brother said I'm supposed to start training some fashionista kid today, but I can't find him anywhere. I think his name was Kurt?"

Kurt's eyes widened and he found that he couldn't move his mouth to form any type of response. _This guy_ was his trainer? Things like this never happened to him, hell, they never happened to _anyone_. Things like this only happened in movies or TV shows, not to everyday people. But there was no mistaking what the guy said, so the only thing left to do was verify what he hoped was true with every fiber of his being.

"Are you Blaine?" Kurt barely managed to choke out after a few extra seconds of gawking. He couldn't find it in himself to feel ashamed about his open staring either.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

Kurt was sure his jaw just hit the floor and his heart stopped beating. The idea of working out at the gym just got a lot more appealing, though there was a good chance he wouldn't learn anything now.

* * *

A/N:

End of Chapter 2!

I can't believe all the feedback I got from this story already! So a special thank you to: 20eKUraN13, BVT123, CheyenneCrissColfer, ChrisColfersKingdom, CopperboomLulu, Dalilah Aurinko, DeanMalfoy, FlirtaciousHarmony, Hopelessly Jonas Bro Obsessed, Lady-Pea, Raizara Black, SofiaKaiEleutheria, blondegeek1989, gleeklainer909, hikikomori-kun, justagirlwithbigdreams, kurtcoblaine-klainetrain, saeekarogal, sevsdominatrix, skyler-on-a-klainebow, xXElleGurlXx, Crristy, Mizuryu 2312, Nonstop Klaine, Rayien, and randomness6!

You are all amazing!

I almost didn't get this chapter out today, and please excuse if a few parts don't make sense-I'll fix them tomorrow- because I lost my glasses somewhere in my house and still can't find them, so I wrote this half blind! Yeah... I can't see shit without my glasses. So give me the benefit of the doubt!

And I know this was a terrible place to leave it, but my eyes are literally burning from typing and reading what I'm typing without glasses, but I promise I'll update tomorrow night with an especially long chapter!

See you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a long, exhausting week for Blaine, and by the time Friday came around all he wanted to do was rest for the weekend. He had no people to train at his brother's boxing gym on Friday's, and was looking forward to doing nothing all day. On Monday, Blaine had accidentally gotten punched in the face by one of the people he trained, resulting in a black eye. Tuesday he got suspended from school again for a week for getting into a fight-which he won. Wednesday he got a phone call from his school stating that if he got in trouble one more time he would be expelled. And Thursday's were just always the worst because he had so many people to train that he never got home until about midnight.

His entire body was sore, but he was used to the feeling by now from years of vigorous daily exercise. But just because he was used to the feeling didn't mean it didn't bother him still, he just knew what to do to relax himself quicker so that he didn't stay tense for days on end.

Blaine was lounging on the couch in the living room of the house he and his brother rented, and was about to finally doze off when his cell phone rang on the coffee table next to him. "Dammit," he groaned as he buried his face deeper into the cushions. It was most likely too early for someone to be calling him, but Blaine was never good at keeping track of time, so he could be wrong.

The phone rang two more times before Blaine decided to pick it up, and he glimpsed to the clock on the wall before answering to see that it was half past eleven in the morning, and only one person would call him at this time. Blaine sighed heavily as he reached for his phone and answered it. "What do you want, Cooper?"

_"Well hello to you, too. I was calling with some good news for you, but maybe I'll just have someone else handle this after all,"_ Cooper said from the other line.

"What news?"

_"You have someone new to train, and he's coming in today at four."_

"That's not good news!" Blaine exclaimed as he sat up, wincing as his muscles protested to the sudden movement. "I'm tired as hell, and the last thing I want to do is train some idiot who has no idea what the fuck he's doing."

_"It's more money for you, so you shouldn't be complaining, little bro. If I made as much money as you when I was your age I'd be ecstatic. So stop complaining,"_ Cooper said seriously.

Blaine sighed in resignation; he knew his brother was right. Growing up in his parent's house had been a literal hell, because they controlled everything he and Cooper did. Cooper was worse off than Blaine for a while though since he was older. His parents chose what sports Cooper played in school, who his friends were, what classes he took and what career he ended up with. When Cooper told them that he didn't even want to go to college because he wanted to box, they stopped giving him an allowance and forbade him to get a job because they were scared he would actually try and go off with the money to pursue boxing. When Cooper turned eighteen though and Blaine was twelve, Cooper got a job, moved out, and took Blaine with him. He saved his money until he had enough to open up the gym, and he and Blaine had been doing pretty well since then.

Of course there had been some bumps in the road along the way- especially around the time Cooper and Blaine moved away from home, which contributed a lot to why Blaine's parents let him leave so easily- but they had gotten over them fairly quickly. Cooper started to teach Blaine how to box as he learned how to when he had time off work, and the two of them got the hang of it faster than most. They had the same amount of experience in boxing, and out of the five years since they started, they've been training other people for two of those years.

"Fine, you're right," Blaine relented. "Who is this guy though?"

Cooper let out a short laugh on the phone, and Blaine didn't take that as a good sign. _"You'll have your work cut out for you, but I already said we'd help the guy so I can't go back on my word. I forgot to ask his name yesterday, but when I went back to my desk after he left I found a note with a name, phone number, and the money for the gym and a week of training; guess the guy couldn't wait until today to pay. His name's Kurt Hummel, and get this; he dresses like some male diva. Kid looks like he couldn't hurt a dead fly, too. "_

Well damn, this wasn't going to be easy for Blaine. He needed something to work with, but this person sounded like they were at level zero with nothing to mold or shape themselves with. It was rare for someone to join the gym who had no fighting skills whatsoever, but every once in a while someone like that did show up. "Is he from around this area?"

_"Hell no! If he walked down the street here looking like that he'd get shot. Said he got lost and found the gym. Kid's about your age I think, so maybe he'll be easier to train."_

Blaine ran a hand down his face as he took in this new information. His hope for a relaxing day was gone, but at least he'd be getting paid, even though work would probably be hard. There had to be something about this new guy that Cooper wasn't telling him though, because he never gave Blaine new boxers to train without training them for a few weeks himself first. Before he had a chance to dwell on it though, something occurred to Blaine. "Wait a second, you said he was at the gym yesterday. Why didn't you tell me then?"

_"Because it's in my job description as your older brother to annoy and piss you off, and nearly waiting until the last minute to tell you this was doing just that,"_ Cooper replied brightly before hanging up.

Blaine sighed for what felt like the millionth time as he set his phone back down in front of him. He would get Cooper back for this when that asshole least expected it.

* * *

Blaine got to the gym at a quarter to four later that day, and was keeping an eye out for a guy dressed like a 'male diva' as Cooper put it. He didn't see anyone who fit the description after a while of waiting by the door, so he decided to walk around to try and find him. Maybe he wouldn't even show up after all, but if he didn't, then Blaine would be beyond pissed off that he came over here for nothing. At four o'clock, he started walking to the front desk to ask Cooper if he'd seen the him, when he bumped into something hard.

Blaine backed up a few inches to find that he walked into some guy who had to steady himself to keep from falling over. "Sorry man," Blaine apologized. "Oh, have you by any chance seen some guy wearing a scarf and skinny jeans probably? My brother said I'm supposed to start training some fashionista kid today, but I can't find him anywhere. His name was Kurt or something?"

Blaine figured that it couldn't hurt to ask someone if they'd seen this Kurt guy, and maybe this man had seen him in the gym and could point Blaine in the right direction. The worst that could happen was that this guy hadn't seen him and Blaine would have just wasted a few seconds of his time.

The other guy just gaped at Blaine for a few seconds and was silent. When he finally snapped out of his stupor, he choked out three words that mildly surprised Blaine. "Are you Blaine?"

Blaine was pretty sure that he'd never seen this person in his life, so he skeptically asked, "Yeah, how'd you know?" Blaine wasn't wearing a name tag, hell, he wasn't even wearing a shirt. Nobody should be able to know his name like that.

Blaine arched an eyebrow when the other man's jaw actually dropped. Who the hell was this person, and why was he looking at him like that? Did he have something on his face? "Are you okay?" Blaine asked warily.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," the other man answered as his face slightly flushed. "I'm Kurt Hummel, and I believe you're my trainer."

Well that was a surprising turn of events, and now Blaine felt stupid; he'd probably offended Kurt by the way he called him a fashionista. Blaine mentally scolded himself for not making a good first impression as a trainer or properly introducing himself. He also had to refrain from face-palming, because it sounded like he was making fun of Kurt in a way, and that wasn't something he did or tolerated.

"Yeah, I'm your trainer. Cooper told me earlier today that you'd be coming in."

"Great," Kurt smiled as he reached his hand out to Blaine who promptly shook it. "So where do we start?"

"Well, we do things a bit differently around here," Blaine started. "I usually take the new people I train back to my office first to work out a schedule, find out how much work their comfortable with, and make a meal plan for them to follow based on what they want to achieve."

"Sounds good to me, lead the way."

Blaine chuckled lightly at Kurt's enthusiasm, glad that he didn't seem to offend him, and started walking to his office with Kurt trailing not far behind him. Once they got there, Blaine shut the door, took a seat behind his desk, and motioned for Kurt to take the seat across from him.

Kurt looked around the room and frowned a bit; the office looked far too simple and impersonal. There were no pictures, decorations, plants, bold colored walls or anything. There was only a desk with some office supplies, three chairs, a table with a lamp, and some filing cabinets. Where were the little personal touches that made an office special?

Blaine cleared his throat to get Kurt's attention before he began speaking. "So what made you want to start boxing?"

Kurt visibly paled at the question even though he had been expecting someone here to ask it. But that was what Kurt was here for; to put a stop to his problems before they got too out of control. He took a deep breath before answering. "I get bullied at school. One guy in particular and his group of friends seem to have made it their life's mission to make my life miserable," Kurt said, noticing the bitter tone of his voice. "I'm done with being shoved around and thrown into dumpsters without being able to do anything about it, and want to learn how to fight back. The principal and teachers don't do anything to stop them, and I'm done being civil."

Blaine's eyes flashed dangerously and he tensed as memories flooded his mind, but he quickly schooled his features and tried to act normal. This didn't get past Kurt though, and he was left wondering what made Blaine react to his reply like that.

Blaine wondered if the bullying had anything to do with the way Kurt dressed, but decided that it wouldn't be appropriate to ask at the moment. "I can help you with your problem," he said instead.

Kurt beamed at his words. "Thank you! So when do I come in?"

"I only work Monday through Friday, so some of those days."

"Do have any days you would prefer I come in? Any of them work for me."

Blaine took a minute to think over his schedule of other people he had to train during the week before answering. "How does Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at four sound?"

"Perfect," Kurt said.

"Do you have any health issues that would prevent you from doing anything at the gym?"

"No, I can do just about anything, but I...uh... I won't be used to the workouts, so you may have to be patient with me."

"That's fine, you'll start getting in shape in no time at all though," Blaine smiled. "Now for your meal plan..."

Kurt and Blaine worked out a meal plan for Kurt to follow, and then got started on Kurt's first day of training. Blaine had Kurt do quite a lot of cardio workouts, and then worked on footwork and a bit of shadow boxing towards the end of the session. Kurt was good with the cardio, but failed miserably at getting his footwork right, and nearly popped something out of place in his arm when he tried to throw a punch. He felt dead tired by the end of everything, but Blaine said he did alright for his first day.

"Thanks Blaine, I'll see you on Monday!" Kurt called as he left the locker room and headed to the exit at 6:00 that night.

"Make sure you get here on time Monday, Hummel!" Blaine replied from the other side of the room as he started to head to his office.

When Blaine got back to his office, he couldn't say he was surprised to see Cooper there sitting on his desk. He'd seen him sneaking glances every now and then at how he trained Kurt, and Blaine knew he would give him some feedback on how he did when the session was over.

"You went easy on him. You've gone soft like a fucking marshmallow or some shit, Blaine. You always shout at people when you train them, but you didn't do any of that tonight," Cooper deadpanned.

"Well you did this on purpose knowing what I would do. The guy's sounds like he's been through enough, and I didn't want to make him more upset," Blaine retorted, doing his best to defend himself.

Cooper sighed as he jumped off the desk. "Blaine, the kid is paying us to make him into a fighter, not to go easy on him and tell him he's doing good when he's not. He's not going to learn anything if you don't push him and make him aware of his mistakes. You're hurting him more than you're helping him."

"So you want me to give him a hard time?"

"No. Have you turned stupid overnight? You're going to treat him like you do everyone else. I assigned you to train him for a reason, and you're not doing how I expected you to. Get your shit together, or I'll train him myself like I should have done in the first place."

And on that note, Cooper gave Blaine a pointed look and stalked out of his office, leaving Blaine alone with his thoughts. For the first time ever, Blaine felt like he failed as a trainer that night. Kurt really hadn't done well with his footwork or with shadow boxing, but Blaine told him he'd done fine. The thing was though, that Blaine couldn't find it in him to yell at Kurt for messing up or tell him to push himself until he got it right. Hell, he knew he couldn't do any of that even before Kurt told him he was bullied. That damn guy looked so innocent with his blue-gray eyes, flawless pale skin, and silky looking chestnut colored hair, it was impossible to get mad at him.

While Blaine wasn't rude to the people he trained, he certainly wasn't as nice as he was to Kurt. He needed to get his act together and train Kurt properly before Cooper took him off the job. On Monday, Blaine would let Kurt know how the training would really go, and would be sure that he didn't go easy on him again.

Fuck, he was going soft, and that was something he couldn't afford to do.

* * *

"How did the tutoring go, Kurt?" Burt asked his son as he got home that night, eyes never leaving the TV where he was watching a baseball game almost religiously.

Since Kurt didn't want anybody to know that he was learning how to box, he'd made up a lie and said that he would be tutoring some kid from school a few times a week. So many things could go wrong that that lie, like Burt could ask him to bring the kid to their house sometime or ask who it was, but Kurt didn't have a lot of time to come up with something better to say, and it was the best thing he could think of on the spot.

"It went well. I'll be tutoring him Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from four to six," Kurt replied, trying to act casual. His voice sounded little higher than normal like it did whenever he lied, but he hoped that his dad was too preoccupied to notice.

"That's good, son. Dinner will be ready in half an hour."

"Thanks, I'll be back down soon!" Kurt said as he hurried up the stairs to his bedroom, relieved that he hadn't been caught.

Once he locked his bedroom door, Kurt promptly collapsed on the floor and groaned in pain. He was beyond sore from working out, but he somehow knew that Blaine hadn't made him workout as hard as he did the other people he trained. He saw pity in Blaine's eyes, and he didn't want pity from him. On Monday, Kurt would tell Blaine to let him know if he's doing well or not and to be real with him this time. He would tell him that he needed to be as good a fighter as he was capable of being, because Karofsky and his friends would show him no mercy.

Maybe he would also tell Blaine to wear a shirt next time, because Kurt wouldn't take responsibility for his actions when he pounced on Blaine if he saw him shirtless again. Not that anyone could blame him, really.

* * *

A/N:

End of chapter 3!

I hope this longer chapter made up for where I left you all hanging yesterday! This one is precisely 2,850 words before the disclaimer and author's notes! I found my glasses... In the dishwasher... don't ask how I managed to do that, because I don't even know.

So were getting little sneak peaks into Blaine's past! It'll be a few chapters before you all get the whole story, but don't worry, it'll be worth the wait! I'm planning on making this quite a long story, so hopefully that's okay with everyone :)

A special thank you to my new followers/reviewers/favoriters: klainforever33, Amira Devant, CortCort93, LeprechaunVomitxD, allieb13, alyssagomez1998, emsylou1110, yaoilover1013, 10thWeasley, EleanorJanis, GleekingItOut, GothicSpook1987, Jaz-Lil-Bai-Kay, KamiRoku213, Renee20061918, Sakura12, SilverLoveless, Simple Sensation, Sindariel, amypotts16, dsfgrfds, marauders716, x-Meiko-Rose-x, and xoxoACH!

All feedback is highly appreciated!

Now, I don't know if anyone even reads my author's notes, but just in case you do, I just wanted to say something-

Bullying is NEVER okay! I've been bullied a ton in the past, and will go to my grave regretting that even though it was a one day/one time thing that I was a bully to someone once. No matter how many times that person has said they forgive me, I feel horrible every time I think about what I did, and know that I'll never be able to take it back no matter how much I wish I could.

No matter if you're gay, bi, transgender, straight, skinny, overweight, disabled, geeky, not good at school, whether you feel that you're pretty or not, YOU ARE FUCKING PERFECT, and never let anyone tell you that you aren't!

And in case you were wondering, yes, I got the title of this fic from Pink's song 'Fuckin' Perfect'

See you next chapter, I'll update in about two days! Have a great weekend everyone!

~CaramelApple74~


	4. Chapter 4

**Oh, and do I see a kiss coming up in the near future of this story? ;)**

After spending all weekend thinking of how he would confront Blaine and getting frustrated when he couldn't think of anything subtle to say, Kurt finally decided that he would just come right out with it and tell Blaine that he thought he was being too easy on him during training. It was better that way, right? To just be simple and honest. Kurt hoped so. And with his plan settled, when Kurt got to the gym that Monday he walked right up to Blaine after changing into his workout clothes and told him what was on his mind.

"Hey, Blaine," Kurt said as he wandered up to his trainer who was thankfully wearing a shirt today. Or was that a bad thing?

"Kurt," Blaine smiled.

"So, um, I was just thinking- and this is only my opinion- that I need harder workouts maybe? And possibly more feedback on how I'm really doing. I don't know, but it felt like you were sort of going easy on me Friday."

Blaine let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding as relief at Kurt's statement flooded through him. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to tell Kurt that workouts would suddenly get harder and he would be harsher on him. Knowing that Kurt noticed he was going easy on him too was a little disconcerting though. "Yeah, sorry about that. Cooper mentioned it to me on Friday."

"Oh, it's fine. So should we start now?"

"Yeah," Blaine said, going to grab a jump-rope from a nearby rack of them and handing it to Kurt. "Here, we'll start with ten minutes of this and then work on weights for a while. Think you can handle it?"

"Pssh, jump-rope is easy. I used to be a double dutch champion on the playground back in elementary school," Kurt said as he started jumping.

Blaine snorted in amusement. "Really now?"

"Of course, and nobody could beat me at it either."

Blaine nodded, and looked around at the other people training after setting his stopwatch for ten minutes. He looked back to Kurt though when he heard him muttering something under his breath. "What was that?"

"It's a jump-rope song, you know, Cinderella dressed in yellow," Kurt replied as he went back to quietly singing, completely obvious to Blaine's extreme confusion.

"What the hell? I've never heard it before."

Kurt stopped jumping and looked at Blaine like he had three heads and a beak. "You've never heard Cinderella dressed in yellow? Never sung it when you were younger?"

"No, should I have?"

"Well, yeah! Everyone knows that song. Here, I'll sing it aloud so you gain a piece of your deprived childhood."

Blaine winced when Kurt said 'deprived childhood', because it was true, but Kurt didn't seem to notice as he started to sing some weird song.

"Cinderella dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss her fellow, made a mistake and kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take? Cinderella dressed in blue, went upstairs to tie her shoe, made a mistake and tied or knot, how many knots will she make? Cinderella-"

"What the fuck?" Blaine interrupted. "Was this bitch blind? How do you try to kiss a guy and kiss a damn snake? And wasn't the whole point of tying her shoes to tie a knot?"

Kurt laughed loudly at that, and had to stifle his laughter before he tripped on the jump-rope and fell flat on his face. "No, but she was blonde."

"Ah," Blaine said as he turned back around and had to listen to eight more minutes of Kurt singing different verses about the ditsy Disney princess and her petty mistakes. Blaine didn't get the point of the songs, but if Kurt found them to be helpful somehow then more power to him.

"Okay," Blaine started when ten minutes of jump-roping were up, "time for weights." Blaine led Kurt over to the weight area of the gym, and handed him two ten pound weights. "We'll start you off easy and go from there. Do fifty reps."

Kurt nodded his head in affirmation and started to lift the weights. He stopped when he got to fifty, and then did fifty more after taking a five minute break as instructed by Blaine. During this time, Kurt got to really look at Blaine and see just how good looking he was. Blaine had huge muscles on his arms, and Kurt knew from seeing him shirtless on Friday that he also had a six-pack and a very muscular back. It was just his luck that he would be attracted to his trainer who was more than likely straight, as Blaine had yet to show any indication that he was gay.

After weights were done, Kurt went back to doing some more shadowboxing. Blaine helped to show him how to properly throw a punch, and Kurt didn't almost dislocate something in his arm this time. Once Kurt seemed to get the hang of it, Blaine suggested that he try and hit the bags for a bit to see what it was like. Kurt was nervous of course, but he tried not to show it; he wanted to impress Blaine.

"Why do you have to wrap my hands in this stuff? Aren't I wearing gloves?" Kurt asked while Blaine wrapped his hands.

The corner of Blaine's mouth lifted slightly at Kurt's cluelessness as he finished Kurt's right hand and moved on to his left. "Yes, you're wearing boxing gloves, but you need to wrap your hands to prevent injury. Without wrapping them it's easier for you to break or sprain something in your hand."

Kurt's eyes widened, and he looked at the wraps on his hands that Blaine just finished with. "Would it be safer to apply a second layer?"

Blaine chuckled and shook his head. "No, you should be fine. Just don't hit the bags too hard yet."

Kurt looked skeptically at his single layer of hand wraps, but then shook his suspicions away, trusting Blaine's knowledge and expertise on the matter.

"Okay, so you'll want to hit the bag like this," Blaine told Kurt while demonstrating what to do.

Kurt didn't even notice that Blaine had his own hand wraps and boxing gloves on, he was too busy checking him out. Was there any chance that Blaine could be gay? After all, it was about time something went right in Kurt's life, right? He could use a miracle around now.

"You got it?" Blaine asked, turning back to look at Kurt.

Shit. Kurt hadn't paid attention to a damn thing that Blaine was showing him or telling him what to do. He was really fucked now. "Um, yeah. I think I got it," is what Kurt said instead.

"Great, give it a try."

Blaine stepped back and Kurt took his place in front of the bag, looking at it calculatingly. As long as he didn't hit it too hard then he would be fine. Or, he hoped he would be fine.

Kurt pulled his arm back and then slowly launched it forward, barely even touching the punching bag. He gave Blaine a strained smile because he knew that was probably the most pathetic punch in boxing history.

"Uh, Kurt, it isn't a bomb. It won't explode when you punch it," Blaine said, raising an eyebrow.

Kurt blushed every shade of red there was, and possibly even some shades of the color that had yet to be discovered. "I was just, um, making sure," he stuttered, feeling like an idiot the moment the words came out of his mouth.

Blaine shot Kurt a confused look. "We're not terrorists, Kurt. There's no bombs in our equipment."

Kurt wondered if he would get a medal or something for just blushing ten shades of red that the world has never seen before. Who did he call to pick up his trophy? "I know. I'll just try again."

Blaine nodded, and watched as Kurt punched the bag with actual force this time. "Better. Give it a few more shots."

And that's how the rest of the training session that day went. Kurt spent most of his time hitting the bags, and then Blaine helped him with some more of his footwork towards the end of the two hours. Kurt still failed miserably at getting his footwork right, so Blaine said that they would dedicate most of Wednesday to improving it.

Blaine was sure to tell Kurt how to fix his mistakes when he messed up, and surprisingly Kurt didn't complain once. Kurt was more determined to learn how to fight than anyone Blaine had ever seen before, and Blaine was left wondering just how bad Kurt's bullying was since the whole reason why Kurt wanted to fight was to protect himself. Blaine couldn't dispute Kurt's reasons for learning how to fight though, because he'd been there, done that, and was still living it.

"Decent workout today," Blaine complimented when Kurt emerged from the locker rooms and walked back into the main part of the gym.

"Really?" Kurt asked, hope shining in his eyes.

"Yeah, you need help on footwork and lifting heavier weights, but we'll get there soon."

Kurt smiled brightly at this, and Blaine felt a small tug on his heart at seeing Kurt smile like that at him. "Great, so I'll see you Wednesday Blaine!"

"Yeah, see you," Blaine replied while returning the smile, although it was a little forced.

Blaine watched Kurt as he left, and ran a hand through his hair once the door closed. What the fuck was going on with him? He couldn't be attracted to Kurt, right? No, this was his job, and he couldn't think of the people he trained that way. Kurt probably wasn't even gay. Eccentric, yes, but that didn't mean he was gay. Or did it? His head hurt just thinking about it.

Cooper watched Blaine from across the gym, and thought that the kid really had turned stupid. Weren't Blaine and Kurt supposed to have built in gaydars or something? It was so damn obvious that they both were gay, and yet Blaine couldn't see that Kurt was and vise versa. He saw the looks Kurt was giving Blaine today and how Blaine looked at Kurt before he left, and there was some serious chemistry between the two. There were both too damn dense too see it, and now Cooper would have to get involved in this shit and make them see sense.

It was times like this where Cooper would say that he didn't understand women, but Blaine and Kurt were men, and he damn well understood men because he was a guy. Cooper just didn't understand the younger fucking generation, they were just all stupid.

* * *

The next three weeks passed quickly for Kurt, and he was getting better at his training every time he went. He was now up to twenty-five pound weights, and had gotten his footwork down packed for the most part. He wasn't so scared at hitting the bags anymore and had yet to injure himself using them. Blaine said that he would start him on sparring soon, and while Kurt was a little wary at the thought of it, he was also looking forward to it.

Kurt still spent a ridiculous amount of time checking Blaine out, but he couldn't really help that. He didn't think Blaine noticed, which was good, because it would be beyond embarrassing if he did. Not just because Kurt was shy about sharing his feelings, but also because Blaine acted impossibly straight which he probably was.

Cooper kept coming up to Kurt and Blaine at the gym when Kurt was training and said the randomest things about them that made no sense to Kurt. Blaine seemed equally confused as him every time, so Kurt just guessed that maybe Cooper was a little off. Not that he would ever voice his opinion or anything.

There were a few close calls during the last few weeks concerning Kurt and his 'tutoring' lie. Burt had asked why the kid never came to their house, and Kurt had spouted something about how the guy he was tutoring was albino, and his parents didn't want him to go outside more than absolutely necessary for fear that he would burn in the sun. Kurt had no idea if what he said was actually true, but it seemed to please his dad so he didn't say anything else. Burt had also asked for the kid's name, and Kurt had just said the first thing that came to mind and didn't remember what he said five seconds after he said it. He would be screwed if his dad ever asked for the kid's name again.

It was still early, but Kurt could feel that he was getting stronger and couldn't wait for the day where he got Karofsky back and kicked his ass. It would probably have to wait until senior year though, because there was only a month and a half left of junior year left. He would be patient and wait though without complaining, victory would only be sweeter.

One Monday morning when Kurt was putting some of his books back into his locker, Karofsky came over and gave him his daily shove against it, laughing as he walked into the boy's locker room. Kurt was used to this happening, but the past weeks of boxing training seemed to have toughened him up a bit, and Karofsky disappearing into the locker rooms gave Kurt an opportunity to confront him.

Kurt slammed his locker shut, grimacing at the newest dent his shoulder made on it, adjusted his bag, and stormed after Karofsky. "What is your problem?" he asked, venom almost dripping from his words as he stopped directly in front of the jock.

"Excuse me?" Karofsky asked incredulously, looking a little uneasy.

"What are you so scared of?"

"Besides you sneaking in here to peek at my junk?"

Kurt let out a humorless laugh and threw his hands in the air at the absurdity of the question. "Oh yeah, every straight guy's nightmare; that all us gays are secretly out to molest and convert you. Well guess what, ham hock, you're not my type."

Karofsky stepped closer to Kurt. "That right?"

"Yeah. I don't dig on chubby boys who sweat too much and are gonna be bald by the time their thirty," Kurt said, feeling a small sense of triumph at the look on Karofsky's face from his statement. It served him right.

"Do not push me, Hummel," Karofsky sneered, raising a fist.

Kurt eyed it for a moment before returning his gaze to Karofsky's. "You gonna hit me? Do it." If Karofsky wanted to punch him then fine, because Kurt knew how to throw a punch, too, and hitting Karofsky back might stun him long enough for Kurt to get away if need be. Sure, he was scared, but adrenaline did wonders for people sometimes in these types of situations.

"Don't push me!" Karofsky repeated, banging his hand against one of the lockers next to him.

"Hit me, because I'm not gonna change who I am. You can't punch the gay out of me any more than I can punch the ignoramus out of you!" Kurt made a note to give himself a pat on the back later for managing to get such a big noun out when one of his main bullies was looking at him like he was next on his hit list. But then again he had been at the top of Karofsky's hit list for several years now. Still, he was still giving himself a pat on the back later for being bold.

"Get out of my face!"

Kurt actually stepped closer to Karofsky and got right in his face just to piss him off since he was feeling vindictive at the moment. "You are nothing but a scared little boy who can't handle how extraordinary ordinary you are!" he snapped, expecting Karofsky to finally hit him now or tell him to leave again.

However, Karofsky did neither of those. Instead, he kissed Kurt.

Kurt froze in shock, not believing what was happening. This had to be some sick, twisted nightmare he would wake up from in a minute, right? Wrong. This was the sick, twisted reality he lived in.

Kurt didn't respond to the kiss, and not just because it took him by surprise, but because it would be downright revolting. The person who bullied him constantly for being gay was gay himself? Kurt felt like his life was just some fucked up TV drama show.

Karofsky pulled away after a few seconds, and when he tried to go back in for a second kiss Kurt pushed him away and backed up several feet, covering his hands over his mouth. Karofsky looked horrified at what he just did, and punched one of the lockers again before racing out the room.

Kurt stood in the same place long after Karofsky left, still disbelieving. What the hell had just happened? Why had it happened? Kurt knew one thing for sure though; he really wanted to kick that hypocrite's ass now, and couldn't wait until he had the advanced fighting skills to do it.

* * *

The rest of Kurt's day went by in a blur. He was still in a daze from the events with Karofsky that morning, and people started to notice that he was acting unusual. Mercedes had asked if Kurt was sick, and Santana had elaborated on that by asking if he had some life threatening disease that would slowly and painfully kill him. Rachel said that Kurt was in shock that because he finally realized that she was a much better singer than him, causing all the Glee Club members to roll their eyes at her and assure Kurt that wasn't true. Brittany's comment on Kurt's behavior had to be the strangest though, because she'd asked Kurt if he had rabies since Lord Tubbington was telling her that the people in the walls wanted Ms. Pillsbury's soul. Brittany never failed to scared the living daylights out of Kurt and make him think she constantly took acid.

When he got to his training at the boxing gym that day, Blaine had asked Kurt if he was okay, too. Kurt assured him that everything was fine, even though everything in his life was far from fine, and tried to get through his workout without having a mental breakdown. He planned on saving that for when everyone at his house was asleep that night and he could freak out in peace.

Training that day was especially tiresome, and Kurt nearly collapsed from exhaustion when it was over. When he got home that night, Kurt told his dad and Carole that he had a lot of homework to do after dinner, and that was why he was looking so distracted. They bought his lie easily enough and let him go without further question.

Just as planned, when everybody else had gone to bed and bid Kurt goodnight, he had a complete breakdown. He had nearly started hyperventilating at the thought of having to face Karofsky again the next day at school, and would have readily ditched tomorrow if he didn't know he had a French test third period. It was his best and favorite subject by far, and he didn't feel like staying after school one day to make it up.

Kurt cried himself to sleep that night, and while it wasn't exactly a rare thing for him, what was rare was that he cried for a full three and a half hours before he actually fell asleep. Normally when he did this he would only cry for a short amount of time for slumber took over him, but not that night. His sleep was filled with nightmares and flashbacks of Karofsky kissing him again.

Kurt had never hated anything or anyone more than he hated David Karofsky.

* * *

Kurt slept through the alarm on his clock Tuesday morning and woke up late. He was tired and sore from his training the previous day and crying all night, so although it wasn't a good thing, it wasn't really a surprise.

"Oh great," Kurt groaned as he saw that school started in ten minutes. He jumped out of bed, quickly chose an outfit from his closet, and all but sprinted to the bathroom to take a shower.

After getting changed, going through his morning moisturizing routine and coiffing his hair, Kurt hurried to his car and drove to school, ordering a coffee from a small café along the way._  
_

School had started a little over forty-five minutes ago by the time Kurt got there, so he decided to just get the books for his next class from his locker and wait until it started. When Kurt got out of his Navigator he saw Karofsky in the parking lot glaring in his direction. Kurt shuttered as memories of yesterday came rushing back to him, and decided to ignore the idiot and act like he wasn't there. Out of sight out of mind, right? Too bad for Kurt though, Karofsky seemed to have other plans in mind and crept up on Kurt, cornering him near the dumpsters.

"You better not tell anyone about yesterday, Hummel," Karofsky snarled as he stopped a few feet from Kurt.

Kurt backed up a couple of steps to put more distance between the two of them, not wanting to be in hitting range of the jock in case he decided to lash out. "I won't. While I don't believe in keeping this to yourself, I also don't believe in outing people." Damn him and his good intentioned beliefs.

"Good, but I'm going to make sure that you don't, because if you do, then expect this to happen again."

The maniac look in Karofsky's eyes shook Kurt to the core, but he tried to keep his voice as level and steady as he could. This was his worst fear coming true; being with one of his bullies with no witnesses around. "Expect what to happen again?"

Karofsky didn't answer Kurt, well, at least not in the way Kurt was expecting to receive an answer. Karofsky shoved Kurt up against the front of the dumpsters, pressing his forearm against Kurt's chest and pinning him to the spot.

"Let go of me!" Kurt cried as he thrashed around, trying to get out of his attacker's strong grip.

_CRACK_

The sound Kurt's nose made as Karofsky's fist connected with it. Kurt yelped in pain, sure that his nose was broken. Karofsky stepped away, satisfied that he got his point across for the time being, and started walking back to the school.

Blood started pouring from Kurt's nose and into his mouth. He spit the blood out, but the lingering taste of it made him feel nauseous, and his head started to feel light from the impact of the blow. Kurt's head had hit the dumpster when he was abruptly pushed against it, and he was hoping that he didn't have a concussion. When he caught sight of Karofsky waltzing back to the school building like he didn't have a care in the world about what he just did though, something snapped inside Kurt, something he faintly recognized as his last shreds of sanity.

Kurt never really had much of a verbal filter to begin with, he had just always been blunt. He was usually good at keeping control of his actions, but the recent weeks of boxing made him a little more careless with them. When you combine those two things and the fact that Kurt was furious with Karofsky at the moment, you get a lethal feeling Kurt who doesn't give a damn what he does anymore.

Kurt ran towards Karofsky- swaying a little to the side in the process, but he would worry about that later- and stopped when he was in front of him. "You _son of a bitch! _What the _fuck _was that for, huh?" he spat, eyes wild and fists clenched tight at his sides.

Karofsky was stunned for a second as he didn't expect Kurt to say anything to him, especially cuss at him like that. He composed himself quickly though, and pulled a smug grin. "It was exactly what is was; a sample of what's to come if you tell anybody about yesterday. Now get out of my face before I do anymore damage to yours."

Kurt was literally shaking with fury at this point. He knew he should leave while he had the chance, before Karofsky really kicked his ass, but only a sane person would be smart and do the right thing in this situation, and as he just noticed a minute ago, Kurt had lost his sanity. "You homophobic asshole! Actually, those aren't the right words to describe you, because you're GAY, too! Yes, you are! You're hiding in the damn closet and torturing me just to make sure people think you're straight! You're a hypocrite, David Karofsky, and you know it! It was YOU that kissed ME! Why couldn't you just leave me the hell alone? Well, it's too late now, because I've had it with your shit! So here!" Kurt exploded, punching Karofsky in the jaw with as much force as he could muster at the end of his rant.

Karofsky's head snapped to the side from Kurt's hit, and he stayed frozen in shock. Kurt was breathing hard and waiting for Karofsky to react. All was silent in the parking lot for a full minute until Karofsky ever so slowly turned his head back to look at Kurt, sparks of anger nearly shooting off him.

"You screwed up now," Karofsky hissed menacingly, also losing all senses of sanity. He had so many emotions bottled up inside him and blamed Kurt for what he was feeling. He was confused and angry mostly, and Kurt punching him just pushed him over the edge. He had to let his anger out somehow, and Kurt just happened to be very convenient and right in front of him.

Kurt looked Karofsky defiantly in the eye, silently daring him to do something. Karofsky took him up on his challenge and punched him in the face again, making Kurt stagger backwards. He followed this with another hit, this time to Kurt's stomach. The wind was knocked out Kurt, and he coughed violently to try and get the air back into his lungs.

Kurt tried to block Karofsky's hits and get some of his own in, but his attempts were futile. Karofsky continued to hit Kurt with blind rage, only pausing to knock him down to the ground and kick him in the side. A sickening snap sounded at that, and Kurt was in so much pain that he couldn't even find the strength to scream for help.

Karofsky stopped then, and looked down to Kurt with disgust. "You did this to me, Hummel. It's all your fucking fault; your stupid fairy self corrupted me. This is what you deserve," he said before fleeing the scene.

Kurt was left crumpled on the ground, bleeding profusely from so many places he didn't even want to know. Pain engulfed his entire being, and his body felt like it was on fire. Kurt's limbs felt so heavy, it was like they were infused with lead, and the world spun before him, making him exceedingly dizzy. He hoped that someone came out here soon and found him before Karofsky came back and killed him. Did Kurt really deserve this? Karofsky bullied him for being gay everyday and unexpectedly and kissed him yesterday, and when Kurt fights back one time he beats the living hell out of him. Where the fuck was the logic in that?

Black dots appeared in Kurt's vision, and he felt himself slipping in and out of unconsciousness. He tried his best to stay awake, but his injuries were too much and far too painful to tolerate. Through the ringing in his ears, Kurt could just make out the sound of the school bell ringing, meaning that the first class of the day was over. Loud chatter was heard, and the pain in Kurt's head increased tenfold. A loud scream pierced the air, followed by many others. Kurt could only assume that someone had seen him.

The last thing Kurt heard was quick footsteps and a strangely familiar voice yelling for someone to call 911 before he succumbed into unconsciousness.

* * *

A/N:

End of chapter 4!

Well, aren't I a bitch? You thought you would get a Klaine kiss, but instead I gave you Karofsky's near rapist attempt on Kurt. Sorry!

I hated injuring Kurt here, but it needed to happen for the plot to work! Poor Kurt :(

I would like to give a special thank you to my new followers/reviewers/favoriters: inudragon21, AbbyVelvet, Archeron Blake, Camille Noir, DimpleyFace8D, Lia94, anji2012, coshiz, eccentric16, oliwiia23, , AngelofAme, SammiJMB, The Devil In Me, tatooedrory, Ugla, riiaofwind, MoonLloyd, and Wolfinn!

I really appreciate all feedback!

See you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	5. Chapter 5

"Do you think he'll wake up soon?" Finn asked for what must have been the thousandth time at the hospital while standing by Kurt's bedside.

"I don't know, Finn," Burt replied, gritting his teeth. Finn had been asking questions nonstop for the past five hours since they arrived at the hospital, and he was starting to get on Burt's nerves.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"_I don't know, Finn!_"

"Is he even going to live?"

"I DON'T KNOW, FINN!" Burt yelled, sending a pointed glare at his stepson.

Finn put his hands up in surrender and stepped meekly to the corner of the room. "Sorry, I'm just worried about him. He doesn't look too good right now."

Burt let out a long sigh and put his head in his hands. "No, you're right, I'm sorry. I just can't stand seeing him like this."

Burt had just gotten to his shop that morning, when he received a call from Finn saying that Kurt got into some kind of bad accident or altercation- nobody knew what happened- and there was a lot of blood and Kurt wasn't breathing too well. Finn said that an ambulance was on the way for him, and in the mean time some kid was at Kurt's side holding some sort of cloth to Kurt's head. Burt had really started to freak out at that point, because having a head injury was serious, especially if Kurt's head was bleeding.

Burt had immediately called Carole and drove to the hospital. He got there just as the ambulance was pulling up, and nearly had another heart attack when he saw Kurt being rushed out of the vehicle on a gurney. Burt had seen some pretty bad accidents during his lifetime, but Kurt had to be one of the top worst ones. He had just never seen so much blood covering a person. Kurt had something on his head and neck, bandages taped to his face, and Burt heard the EMT's yelling something about being careful with his left side and his right leg. The scariest part of the whole thing though, was when the EMT's started screaming about how his breathing was becoming shallower by the second.

Burt couldn't lose his only son. Sure, Finn was also like his son and he would be just as worried if something happened to him, but Kurt was his real son. He had already lost his first wife, and he wasn't prepared to lose Kurt. Burt didn't know how he would go on or if he would ever recover if Kurt died. Burt _needed _Kurt to live, and he would gladly switch places with Kurt at the moment, but things just didn't work like that.

Kurt had gotten out of surgery about two hours ago and out of recovery one hour ago. He was still asleep from all the medication the hospital gave him and didn't look like he would wake up anytime soon, but who knew? It was hard to tell at this point when he looked just like he did when he was brought in. He had almost no color in his complexion, and there were a bunch of tubes and wires connected to him. Doctors said they thought Kurt would make a full recovery, but that there was also a chance of him falling into a coma not making it because of the extent of his injuries.

Blaine and Cooper were sitting in chairs against the far wall of the room, watching the scene before them apprehensively. The two of them had gone to McKinley High School that morning to try and enroll Blaine there since he had been expelled from his old school last Friday. It was a different district, and also the closet other school district to them. The brothers were just leaving after having successfully enrolling Blaine there, when they heard screams and saw a very familiar person laying crumpled on the ground surrounded in a pool of blood.

Blaine had reacted immediately, having a vast knowledge of injuries, and had called out to Cooper to call 911 as he ran to help Kurt. Blaine had taken his shirt off and pressed it to the back of Kurt's head in an attempt to stem the bleeding from it and tried desperately to wake Kurt back up to no avail. He didn't want to move Kurt, but he did lift Kurt's shirt partway up when he noticed that his breathing was irregular and shallow, fearing that he may have a broken rib that resulted in a punctured lung. Blaine was mostly sure that he was correct, because Kurt's side was bruising.

Blaine knew that Kurt had been attacked by someone; it was obvious by his injuries. But who would leave Kurt nearly dead in a parking lot? How long had he even been there before anyone found him anyways? Blaine found Kurt to be a generally nice, kind person from the conversations the two of them had during Kurt's training, so it was unlikely that he had any enemies. But Kurt did say that the whole reason he wanted to learn to fight was because he was bullied. Was he bullied this badly on a constant basis? One look at Kurt's father and stepbrother shook that notion from Blaine's head though, because they looked much too distraught.

Burt looked toward Blaine and Cooper at that moment, seemingly having just remembered they were in the room. He vaguely recalled the two of them coming to the hospital saying they knew Kurt and were there at the school when everyone found him in the parking lot, and they had been ushered into the hospital room amongst all the chaos at the time. "Are you Derek James, the boy Kurt tutors?" Burt asked, directing his gaze to Blaine. At Blaine and Cooper's confused looks, Burt elaborated. "You know, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from four to six."

"What the hell? I'm Cooper Anderson, and this is my little bro, Blaine Anderson," Cooper said, giving Burt a strange look. "And what are you talking about? Kurt's at my gym training at that time every week."

Burt frowned at Cooper's statement. "No, he said that he tutors an albino boy who can't come to our house because his parents think he'll burn in the sun."

Cooper snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "The kid's good, I'll give him that. I guess Kurt here lied to you, because he's been training at my boxing gym for almost the past month to learn how to fight with Blaine training him. Said he get's bullied and nobody does anything about it, so he wants to learn how to hold his own from now on."

Burt was shocked at this new information; why would Kurt lie to him? Burt liked to think that he knew his son pretty well, and he knew that Kurt was a very non-violent person. Did Kurt really feel so unsafe at school that he felt he needed to learn how to fight in order to feel safe? It appeared so, and Burt felt like a failure of a father for not having done anything about Kurt's predicament.

Burt looked to the two men sitting across from him and thought that they couldn't be too bad since they were helping Kurt. Sure they looked a little rough around the edges, but they did own a boxing gym, so that was to be expected. He would ask Kurt more about this whole thing later and get answers to the dozens of questions bouncing around in his head, but right now he needed to thank this kid for helping Kurt. "So I'm guessing you're Kurt's trainer," Burt asked Blaine.

Blaine nodded and walked up to shake Burt's hand. "Yes, sir."

"Hey, you're the one who ran over to Kurt when everyone found him, aren't you?" Finn asked, speaking for the first time in a while. Burt didn't seem that annoyed at him anymore, so he figured it was safe to talk again.

"Oh, um, yeah," Blaine answered, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Dude, thanks! The doctor told us that he would have lost a lot more blood and had a lower survival rate if you didn't stop some of the bleeding."

Blaine blushed at this, which was something he rarely ever did, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Well, then I'm glad I could help a bit."

Burt got a good look at Blaine, and noticed that the kid was just wearing an undershirt; he must have used his regular shirt to stop the bleeding from Kurt's head. "I'll pay for a new shirt for you since your other one got ruined."

"That's okay sir, it was nothing."

"I insist, you helped my son, and that means a lot to me."

Before Blaine could say something else to assure Kurt's father that he didn't need to buy him a new shirt, there was a faint groan followed by a cough coming from Kurt's hospital bed. All four heads in the room snapped to Kurt, and they watched as his eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Hey bud," Burt said softly as he got up from his seat and stepped closer to Kurt. Relief washed over him as he saw that his son was awake and not still unconscious with the chance of never waking up. "How do you feel?"

Kurt coughed a few times, and winced at the pain that erupted in his side and chest at the movement caused by it. "Terrible, where am I?"

"I'll go get a doctor!" Finn called before rushing out of the room.

"You're in the hospital, Kurt. You gave us all quite a scare, what happened?" Burt asked soothingly, yet there was a desperate undertone to his voice, because he wanted to know exactly what caused Kurt to end up here.

Kurt furrowed his brow in concentration as he tried to recount everything he could remember from earlier today, and his eyes went wide as realization hit him. All the color that Kurt had left in his face instantly drained, leaving him whiter than a sheet, and the heart monitor next to him started beeping rapidly.

"Kurt! Kurt, what's wrong?" Burt asked quickly, looking over Kurt to see what just caused the dramatic change in his heart beat. He didn't see any blood suddenly pouring from his bandages or anything of the likes, so he didn't know what could possibly go wrong. But then again he wasn't a doctor, he was a mechanic who barely even knew how to open a band-aid.

Kurt's breathing became erratic, and he started shaking furiously. "K-Karofsky," he choked out just as two doctors and a few nurses came rushing into room, followed by a worried looking Finn.

"What happened to him?" Finn asked as he stayed near the doorway or the room.

"He's going into shock!" one of the doctors yelled. "Everybody get out the room!"

Finn left just as the doctor said, but Burt, Cooper, and Blaine hesitated for a second before exiting the room, too.

"What was that Kurt said before the doctors came in?" Cooper asked after a few minutes of silence.

Burt couldn't believe this. That idiotic jock who had tormented Kurt for years by making fun of him for being gay and shoving him around at school had done this. The boy never had a right to do any of those things, but now he had taken it way too far. Burt saw red as he glanced back to the door leading to Kurt's hospital room, and he weighed a few different options before making up his mind. "Finn, stay here and let me know what happens to Kurt. I'm going up to that school right now and demand that the principal do something about this. I'm not going to stop until that boy gets expelled and sent to jail."

Finn nodded in understanding, then stood and anxiously waited with Cooper and Blaine until the doctors let them back into the room.

* * *

Burt stomped all the way to principal Figgins' office once he pulled up to the school, letting anyone who passed him know that he meant business. This Karofsky kid had nearly killed Kurt, and he would see justice be served if it was the last thing Burt Hummel did. And if things didn't go his way, well, he already had a plan and wasn't afraid to put it into action.

"Ah, Mr. Hummel. How is Kurt doing?" Figgins asked as Burt stormed into his office.

"Terrible, thanks to one of your students," Burt said in a clipped voice. There would be no polite pleasantries on his side today.

"What do you mean, Mr. Hummel?"

"What I mean, is that when Kurt woke up half an hour ago he said he that this Karofsky punk attacked him. Then Kurt went into shock at mentioning it, and I was evacuated from his room while the doctors tried to stabilize him."

Kurt and his father always claimed that David Karofsky was bullying Kurt, but they had never been able to prove it. Figgins couldn't do anything unless they had a way to prove that Kurt was being bullied or David himself admitted to it, and both of those had yet to happen. His hands were tied. "I can bring Mr. Karofsky in here and ask him if he knows anything about what happened to Mr. Hummel," Figgins said after a moment of contemplating what he could do.

"Ask if he knows?" Burt exclaimed incredulously. "He's the one who attacked my son!" This man was stupider than Burt originally thought, and he already thought the guy was an oblivious airhead.

"I cannot assume that or point the blame on anyone at this point, Mr. Hummel. This is the best I can do."

Burt grumbled something under his breath as he waited for the Karofsky character to come in the office after conceding with principal Figgins. He had a lot of things to say to this kid when he got here, and Burt didn't even care if some of them were threats and considered to be illegal.

"You asked to see me, Principal Figgins?" Karofsky asked as he stepped into the office five minutes later after he was called in.

"Yes, take a seat please, David," Figgins replied politely.

Burt scoffed at this and ignored the pointed look he got from the principal.

"Now David, as you know Mr. Hummel was attacked this morning, and he said that you were the one who attacked him. Is this true?"

"No sir, I haven't seen Kurt at all today," Karofsky replied, looking the picture of innocence.

"Oh for the love of all that's holy!" Burt boomed. "Look at him! His jaw is bruised and swelling, proof that my son got a good hit in himself."

"I got hurt during football practice yesterday," Karofsky lied.

"You're sure you don't know anything about Kurt, David? This is very serious," Figgins said.

Karofsky looked Figgins right in the eye as he spoke, trying his best not to look guilty. "I'm sure, sir."

This kid was a good actor, Burt thought, but he wasn't good enough to fool him. Kurt may have lied about the tutoring thing, but he would never lie about something this serious, he was positive. Figgins was too gullible for his own good.

"Am I done here now, sir?" Karofsky asked as he looked to the clock on the wall. "I have to get back to class."

"Yes, you're excused, David," Figgins said, clasping his hands and smiling. "I'm sorry, Mr. Hummel, but there's nothing I can do on this matter."

* * *

Kurt awoke to a steady beeping sound and was confused for a moment, then remembered that he was in the hospital because Karofsky had attacked him. His head, chest, side, and leg hurt him, and his mouth felt dry. At least he was alive though, because if he remembered correctly, Karofsky had beat the hell out of him.

Kurt opened his eyes with some struggle, and looked to the side to see Blaine watching him intently. When did he get here? And more importantly, how did he even know that he was in the hospital? "Blaine?" Kurt croaked, wincing at the rough sound of his voice.

"You're awake," Blaine smiled.

"Where is everybody?"

"Oh, uh, Cooper was here but he had to head back to the gym, your step-mom stopped by a few times to check on you, but you were still out, and Finn took your dad back to your house for a bit to let him cool down after he tried to strangle your principle," Blaine replied somewhat awkwardly.

Concern flooded through Kurt at Blaine's last statement. "What happened?" He didn't want his dad to get all worked up and have another heart attack. But wait a second, did he hear that correctly; strangling Principal Figgins?

"That's not important at the moment, and I think it'll be best if someone else explains it to you since I don't have the whole story. Anyways, how are you feeling now?"

"Still horrible. What happened to me?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" Blaine asked cautiously. At Kurt's deadpanned look, he sighed and easily relented. "You have three broken ribs and a punctured lung, a broken nose, you broke your right leg in two places, a concussion, sprained your left wrist, lost a lot of blood, and have quite a few major cuts and bruises."

That would explain the high amount of pain Kurt was in. Something else was on the forefront of his mind though, something that he desperately hoped he managed to do but couldn't remember whether or not it had happened. "Did I get him?"

Blaine smirked and let out a short laugh. "Your step-mom said he came here earlier because his jaw kept hurting, and x-rays show that you managed to crack it."

Kurt paled at the thought of Karofsky being in the same building as him, despite the sense of victory that washed over Kurt, and asked something else to get his mind off it. "Why are you here?"

"I was at your school earlier to enroll there, when I heard a bunch of people screaming on my way out and then saw you laying on the ground covered in blood."

"Why are you going to McKinley?"

Blaine avoided looking in Kurt's direction as a memory of last week washed over him. "Oh, about that..."

**_*FLASHACK*  
_**

_"Where are you going, homo?"_

_Blaine kept walking to his motorcycle after school, not looking behind him. He knew if he did he would break the other guy's arm, or worse. He kept repeating 'he's not worth it' as his mantra in his head. As much as Blaine hated his school and the prejudiced people there, he didn't want to get expelled, because then he would have to drive quite far everyday to another school district._

_"I'm talking to you, fag, turn around!"_

_Blaine gritted his teeth and balled up his fists, repeating his mantra faster now as he felt his resolve slipping. He knew that he shouldn't let people's words get to him, but dammit they did. It wasn't Blaine's fault that he was gay, and it wasn't right for people to bully him for it. The guys here that taunted him relentlessly though were just plain stupid, because no matter how many times Blaine beat them all in fights they still continued with their name calling and pathetic attempts to push him around. Would they ever learn that they couldn't take Blaine down?_

_Blaine heard footsteps quicken their pace behind him, and then he was violently shoved against the wall next to him._

_"Where are you going, huh, to your little gym to train your creepy little fuck buddy?" the boy asked Blaine, giving him a disgusted look._

_Blaine was confused for a moment, but then remembered that he trained Kurt at the gym today. Damn, he knew that people in town would spot him a mile away what with his choice of clothes and meticulously styled hair. "No, but then again it wouldn't be any of your business if I was, would it?" Blaine asked in a cocky tone of voice. Wait a minute, where the hell did that come from?!_

_"You're disgusting, Anderson."_

_"Get the fuck away from me, Sebastian," Blaine snarled._

_"No, I think I'll just put your worthless gay self in your place."_

_Blaine rolled his eyes; Sebastian was saying this shit again?_

_Sebastian pulled his arm back and made to punch Blaine, but Blaine grabbed his arm and twisted it to the side before Sebastian could hit him. Sebastian cried out in pain and tried to free his arm from Blaine's tight grasp, but had no such luck. Blaine took this opportunity to punch the other boy in the face, and landed a perfect hit to his eye. Blaine let go of Sebastian's arm, and punched him in the stomach. __The other boy dropped to the ground in pain just as the principal of the school came running from around the corner._

_Impeccable timing, as usual._

_The principal took in the scene before him and immediately rounded on Blaine. "Mr. Anderson! I gave you one last warning a few weeks ago and you attack Mr. Smythe? You're expelled! What you have have to say for yourself now?"_

_Blaine smirked and looked the principal right in the eye. The man had always hated Blaine and never believed him, because he was just as prejudiced as the students at this school. Blaine had a lot of things he wanted to say to his sorry excuse of a principal, but settled on two things that were sure to piss him off. After all, he was expelled now, so what could the man do? "Fuck you, and I'll see you when you burn in hell."_

_And with that said, Blaine walked confidently back to his car, leaving behind an injured Sebastian laying on the ground and a principal shaking with anger._

**_*END FLASHBACK*_**

"I just got expelled, it's no big deal," Blaine said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. Kurt didn't need to know the details, nobody did. It was his own problem and he could fight his own battles.

"Expelled!" Kurt exclaimed softly; he still couldn't talk normally due to his injuries. "How did you manage to do that?"

Blaine waved a had and leaned back in his chair. "I got in a fight or two."

Kurt knew that Blaine had gotten into more than one or two fights, because it took way more than that to get expelled. He didn't say anything though, because it wasn't any of his business and he didn't want to hear about any fights since the one from this morning was still fresh in his mind. "Do you know how long I'll be in here for?"

"A few weeks probably, it depends on how fast you heal. You're pretty injured, and that's saying something coming from me considering I train boxers."

Kurt groaned in frustration, not wanting to spend so long confined to this stupid hospital bed in the damn hospital. "Great. How long until I can go back to training?"

Blaine chuckled lightly. "You just got your ass kicked, and you want to get right back into training when you can't even walk on your own?"

"You have no idea."

* * *

Blaine had to leave soon after Kurt woke up the second time, because he had to get to the gym. Burt and Finn came back to the hospital soon after that, and Carole joined them in keeping Kurt company once her shift was over. Everyone from Glee Club, including Mr. Shuester, visited Kurt when school was over and promised that they would make Karofsky pay for what he did for Kurt. Kurt thanked them all for coming to visit, but his mind was drifting elsewhere the entire time. It kept going back to Blaine.

From what Kurt understood, Blaine had essentially saved him by stopping the bleeding from his head. That was something that Kurt could never repay, but he would try his best to do something to show his gratitude, he just didn't know how yet.

It would be at least two months until he could go back to the gym, and Kurt couldn't wait. Surprisingly, Burt had told Kurt that he could continue his training, because he would do anything at this point to ensure Kurt's safety at school. Kurt managed to convince his family not to tell anyone about learning how to box, because it would just make Karofsky angry at the thought that Kurt planned on fighting him back.

Kurt barely got any sleep at the hospital that night, because it seemed that a nurse or doctor would come in every ten minutes to check up on him and his condition. Even though Kurt assured them he felt fine, the hospital staff wouldn't budge. He was bored out of his mind watching TV and reading the books that his dad had brought him from home, and didn't find any solid form of entertainment or something that would make him laugh until around eight o'clock the next morning when he received a text message from Finn.

**To: Kurt**

**From: Finn**

**Kurt! Wish u could be at school 2day, karofsky just slushied that blaine guy and blaine knocked him out cold! U should have seen azimio's face, he just dropped his slushie and ran! Thought that would cheer u up, feel better soon. -Finn.**

* * *

A/N:

End up chapter 5!

Poor Kurt, he's all injured right now :(

But what about that image I put in everyone's head of Blaine being a hero and taking his shirt off to stop Kurt from bleeding to death ;) Darren Criss is hot as hell, and I think Chris Colfer is too... it's a shame that he's actually gay, isn't it?

I hope you liked the chapter! A special thank you to: MsLauraJayne, ThePineappleThief, chirographaire, Literati Wolf Lover, mylisa777, N.E. .out, jacqcarl, DCCCLover, indyw, Bleached Jeans, Cynically Sarcastic, TinkerBalerina, NotAloneDC, Future Forensic Goddess, JayaDurron, sabbypandawan, alwayssariyana, lazyluck, ashamg, glittersexandrainbows, Lerastone1917, mcrmy2019, julymom97, kanon95, mysen, thestairwell, DejahSoCrazy, SailorBaby16, angelalexandra, kuntneykardash, monaleann096, any-otp-will-do, Princessa, eternaltwilite, and KikiJuanita!

Thank you everyone for all the feedback!

See you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	6. Chapter 6

Blaine was walking through the halls of McKinley High School, trying to find the main office so he could pick up his schedule. Why did the school have to have so many damn levels? As much as he hated to admit it and would deny it if asked, Blaine was hopelessly lost. Right now he was in some hallway filled with students, but he couldn't tell what grade they were mainly in. Was there any chance he could be in junior hall? Even if the office wasn't here, at least he would know where to find his locker. After a few more minutes of scoping out where all the doors in the hallway led to and finding that none of them were to the office, Blaine just accepted the fact that he would need to ask someone.

While walking to an open classroom door, Blaine noticed that something was off, he just couldn't figure out what. A few seconds later the answer came to him though; everyone had just gone deathly silent. While Blaine wasn't familiar with this particular high school, he was well acquainted with high school in general, and knew from experience that hallways were always loud and busy, never quiet. Either something bad just happened and he missed it, or something bad was just about to happen.

"Hey, new guy!" a voice a few feet behind Blaine yelled.

Well, at least he had his answer, and it was quite obvious who the person was speaking to. Blaine stopped walking as he heard multiple sets of footsteps approaching him, and debated on whether he should actually turn around or not. Blaine had always been curious though- which was a trait that often got him into trouble- so he turned around to see who had just called out to him.

Only to have something freezing cold, sticky and wet thrown in his face.

Blaine froze in shock for a moment; it felt he'd just been hit by a block of ice. He recovered quickly though, and slowly reached up to wipe the substance from his eyes. He looked on his hand to see what it was when he was finished, and saw that he had just had a red slushie thrown at him. What fucking bastard throws a slushie at someone?

Blaine looked up toward the perpetrator to see two football players giving each other a high-five, and one of them still held a slushie. They were both easily twice his size, and the one holding the frozen beverage looked like he could possibly even be triple Blaine's size. They looked like they were muscular to an extent, being mostly just big, but regardless Blaine could take them both down. None of this caught Blaine's attention too much though, because what did was the larger boy's comment.

"Nice job, Karofsky. Let's see if I can beat that."

Karofsky? This was the asshole that almost killed Kurt yesterday? Anger bubbled up inside of Blaine, and he looked at the two boys with disgust. "What the hell was that?" he snarled. Things were about to get ugly very fast, and it hadn't even been ten seconds since he'd been hit with the slushie.

The larger boy smiled devilishly and prepared to throw his slushie at Blaine. "Welcome to McKinley."

But Blaine had no intentions of being 'welcomed to McKinley' a second time. He had something else in mind, and reacted before the other boy could. Blaine balled up his fist and swung his arm out toward Karofsky, hitting the idiot in the side of the head so hard that he knocked him out cold. The football player immediately fell to the ground unconscious, and his friend dropped his slushie in surprise.

Blaine turned his attention to the other boy and looked him right in the eye. "You come here to learn, melon-head, so here's your first lesson of the day: don't fuck with me."

The other football player's eyes widened and he ran from the hall without saying a word. Damn right, he better run.

Blaine looked down to his shirt to see that it was now ruined since it was white. He cursed under his breath, hating the fact that he'd have to wear a stained shirt for the rest of the day. Blaine looked up then to see everybody in the hallway gaping and staring at him.

"What the fuck are you all looking at?" he asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance is his voice. He didn't have time for this kind of stuff, and also didn't like being looked at like these people were looking at him.

Everyone looked away and went back to what they were previously doing at once, although some people continued to glance back at Blaine over their shoulders. Blaine shook his head and stepped over the Karofsky guy he knocked out, and then walked to the end of the hall where the bathrooms were.

Blaine got all of the slushie off his face and washed as much of it as he could out of his hair. He would just take another shower when he got home to get the rest of it out. Blaine sighed and briefly wondered if anyone picked Karofsky off the floor or if he was still there. It would be hilarious if he stayed there until he woke up, but a teacher was bound to notice him sooner or later. After drying his hands with a paper towel, Blaine exited the bathroom and went back to search for the office. The late bell had already rung, but he couldn't care less.

Blaine found the main office on the first level of the school and casually strolled up to the front desk. There was a short, middle aged blonde woman sitting in a chair typing away on a computer. She didn't seem to notice Blaine, so he cleared his throat.

Nothing.

Blaine cleared his throat louder this time, sure that he would get her attention now.

Still nothing.

What the hell was wrong with this woman? Blaine angled his head so he could see what the lady was working on, to see that the computer screen was blank and she was typing at nothing. This school had some really useful staff.

"Hey, Helen Keller!" Blaine snapped impatiently.

This got the woman's attention, and she looked to Blaine with wide, surprised eyes. "Excuse me?"

"I've been standing here for a few minutes and haven't received any assistance. I need my schedule."

"Oh, um, right. Sorry, I was busy with some...ah...attendance records. Are you new here?"

Blaine gave the woman a deadpanned look and said nothing.

"Right. Name, please?" she asked timidly.

"Blaine Anderson," Blaine replied automatically. He wanted to get out of the office before Karofsky came in and framed him. Detention wasn't very appealing to him at the moment.

"Oh, your schedule's right here!" the woman said while handing Blaine a slip of paper. "Have a nice first day at McKinley, Mr. Anderson, and come back here if you need help with anything!"

Blaine nodded once and made his way out of the office, knowing that he wouldn't be back here willingly for anything. He glanced down at his schedule to see that he had English, History, French, Geometry, Woodshop, Physics, and Piano. He didn't have any advanced classes, because school had never been his forte, and he was barely managing to keep a 2.5 GPA as it was.

Amazingly, Blaine was able to locate his first period class, English, easily enough. The teacher had greeted him to the class, and whispers immediately broke out amongst the students. Word about his run-in with the school idiot has obviously been spread quickly. When the teacher told him that he could sit anywhere he wanted to, Blaine chose an empty table at the back of the classroom, doing his best to try and ignore the eyes that followed him.

It was nearing the end of the period, and the teacher whose name Blaine couldn't remember if his life depended on it was droning on about grammar. Or was it poetry? Whatever it was, Blaine didn't give a shit. He just wanted to get home so that he could change his shirt since the slushie was drying on it and making it uncomfortable. When the clock on the wall signaled ten minutes before class was let out though, an announcement came on the loudspeakers.

"Will Blaine Anderson please come to the principals office right away."

Well damn, that couldn't be a good sign.

* * *

"How in the hell did you get suspended within an hour of your first day at that school?" Cooper asked incredulously as soon as he and Blaine got home. He had to leave work to pick his brother up, and who knew what could happen with neither him or Blaine at the gym while it was open. Cooper refused to hire any other workers; he didn't need them and didn't trust anyone else.

Blaine stepped off his motorcycle and walked to Coopers car parked next to him. "Easy, some jackass threw a slushie at me and I knocked him the hell out."

"Oh, I thought that was blood on your shirt."

"You know that if it was it would have been the other guys', not mine," Blaine said while rolling his eyes. Did Cooper honestly think he would let anybody draw blood from him at school?

"So how long are you suspended for again?" Cooper queried as he started walking up the driveway to the front door of his house.

"Four days."

"Nice job, little bro, great addition to your record."

"We both know that I don't give a damn about it," Blaine replied as he shut the front door behind him. He didn't need anybody grilling him even more, the principal had already chewed him out. Not that he cared about anything the guy said.

"So who was the lucky person that got their lights knocked out?" Cooper asked as he turned to face Blaine.

"The asshole who almost killed Kurt yesterday."

Cooper smirked at Blaine and gave him a knowing look.

"What?" Blaine asked.

Cooper just shook his head and started back to the door. "Nothing, little bro. I have to get back to the gym, so find something to entertain yourself with until six. And don't be late!"

Blaine sighed and looked around the living room once Cooper left, wondering what he would do to pass the time until he went to the gym to train people tonight. Usually he never got bored when he was suspended and always had something to do. Right now though, he was drawing a blank. He could watch TV? No, there were only ever stupid reality shows on these days. Video games? No, he wasn't really in the mood for them. Go to the park and play basketball? Strangely, he didn't really want to.

So where the fuck did that leave him?

Blaine paced the room as he thought about what he would do. He looked out the living room window then and saw his motorcycle sitting in the driveway where he left it. Well, a cruise around the city it would be.

Blaine took a fast shower and put on fresh clothes, then raced back to the living room, picked his keys up from the coffee table and made his way outside to his Harley. He hopped up onto the seat, put the key in the ignition and sped off, not bothering to put his helmet on. The police could see him in hell if they tried to pull him over.

Having no destination in mind, Blaine just let his instincts take over and take him to wherever. He knew that he was going well over the legal speed limit, but that never stopped him before, and he wasn't going to let it stop him now. Blaine wove in and out of traffic and in between lanes just to piss people off, and laughed whenever someone would honk their horn at him. He gladly flipped them off in return. After around forty minutes of driving, Blaine stopped and looked at where he ended up at.

Well, damn.

Blaine was known by many to be a bad-ass, but during the past month he noticed that he wasn't so bad in the presence of a certain person. Blaine was the type of person who didn't give a fuck what people thought of what he did, and he never thought before he acted or cared what the consequences would be. It had been five years since he actually listened to anyone and did as he was told. Years of abuse both verbal and physical were a part of what had turned him into who he was today, but he actually liked who he was now. He didn't take any shit from anyone, and never did much- outside of training people at the gym, which he took very seriously- so that people wouldn't expect things from him.

But now he found himself caring about little things in the presence of this certain person, and he didn't like that one bit. Blaine couldn't afford letting go of everything he did to build up his reputation. He needed to stop this before it got out of hand.

But he was here, so he might as well...

* * *

"Blaine, what are you doing here?" Kurt asked in surprise when his trainer walked into his hospital room that morning. However, he was secretly hoping that Blaine would come visit him again sometime.

Yeah, what was Blaine doing here? He wanted to know the same thing. "I came to make sure you were still alive and could continue with your amazing boxing lessons when you get out of the hospital," Blaine replied smoothly as he slid into a chair next to Kurt's hospital bed.

"Conceited much?" Kurt asked teasingly.

"You have no idea. So where's your dad? He didn't look like he would be leaving here anytime soon yesterday."

"I made him go home a couple hours ago to get some rest since he stayed up all night over here."

"Oh," Blaine said looking around the room. Wow, this was awkward. How likely were the chances that he could make a run for the exit without Kurt noticing? Blaine looked to Kurt to see the other boy watching him intently. Yeah, there goes his plan. He really needed to start thinking before he acted, it could probably get him out situations like this. That would never happen though, who was he kidding?

"So you knocked out Karofsky?" Kurt asked, breaking the silence that fell between him and Blaine.

"Yeah, the bastard threw a slushie at me. Does he do that often? And how did you know anyways?"

"Finn texted me about two hours ago, and yeah, they throw slushies all the time. I get one thrown at me almost everyday. It feels like getting hit by a block of ice, doesn't it?"

Blaine let out a low chuckle. "Yeah, but I don't think they'll be throwing any of them for a while. Karofsky will be lucky if he can even walk straight during the next few days considering how hard I hit him. I didn't get suspended for just causing a bruise after all."

Kurt openly gaped. "You got suspended?"

"How else would I be here?" Blaine asked. He didn't bother telling Kurt that it would be very possible he would be here anyways even if he hadn't been suspended. He was no stranger to ditching classes or just skipping school all together.

Kurt felt a light blush color his cheeks. "Oh, I, uh, don't know."

"So," Blaine started after a moment, "what do you do for fun in a hospital?"

"Well, I got bored a few times last night and pretended to have hallucinations when the nurse came in to check up on me. I claimed that I was getting weird side affects from the pain medication she gave me. I scared the daylights out of her."

Blaine laughed at that and clapped Kurt lightly on the shoulder, not wanting to injure him. "You actually did that?"

"She was asking for it. She kept coming in every ten minutes to wake me up and check on me even though I told her I was fine. After that she left me alone for four solid hours."

"I didn't think you had it in you, but that's hilarious. What else is there to do for fun?"

"Not much, I'm confined to this bed and can't move very far anyways," Kurt answered.

"Well, think of something. I'm bored."

Kurt tried to fight down the giddy smile that wanted to take over his face at knowing that Blaine would be visiting him for a while, but knew that he failed miserably. Kurt thought for a few minutes of what would be fun to do, and then a brilliant idea struck him. "Let's play twenty questions!"

"Twenty questions?" Blaine repeated. He didn't like the sound of that, of letting someone know things about him. But one look at Kurt and he felt his resolve crumble; he couldn't say no when Kurt looked so weak and broken. And besides, if he asked harmless questions then Kurt would too, right?

Blaine had no idea just how wrong he was.

"Yeah, here, I'll start. What is the craziest thing you've ever done?" Kurt smiled.

Shit. That was one hell of a first question. There were many crazy things that Blaine Anderson has done, and Kurt would probably have a stroke if he knew any of them. But Kurt wanted to know the _craziest _thing that Blaine did, and it just might scar Kurt for life if he told him. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Blaine could always just make up a lie, but he was always honest with people- he liked to think of the first day of training Kurt at the gym as just sugar-coating the truth. Blaine could be called many names, but a liar was not one of them, and he wasn't about to change that now.

"Yes, that's why I asked." Kurt replied innocently. Whatever Blaine said couldn't be that bad, could it? No, Blaine seemed like a generally nice person, and Kurt didn't think he would do anything too crazy.

"Well, last year some friends and I took a flight to San Diego early in the day, and somewhere along the line we got a hold of some Everclear 190 proof and drank about a bottle each. I don't know how we did it, and honestly I don't remember much about that day, I just know what I was told and what happened when I woke up. Apparently one of my friends and I snuck into the zoo late that night and ended up having sex in the lion exhibit before passing out drunk. We woke up the next morning to tourists snapping pictures of us, and nearly got killed by a lion. I was in the hospital for a month, and had to get stitches and treated for alcohol poisoning."

Kurt was sure his face showed pure horror. Damn. Asking 'what's your favorite color' didn't look like such a bad question anymore. Kurt could only form one coherent response to Blaine's answer. "That was YOU who I heard about on the news?"

* * *

After recovering from his trance like state as his brain stored the image Kurt received from Blaine's answer away, Kurt was able to continue his game of twenty questions with Blaine. He learned that Blaine's most prized possession was his Harley Davidson, he curses worse than a sailor, Cooper is his only sibling, he likes vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, his favorite color is blue-gray as of recently, he's been arrested twice, he hates winter because it's 'too damn cold' and Cooper makes him shovel the snow out the driveway each year, he has no regrets, didn't comment on his parents when asked about them, his favorite holiday is Halloween because he can scare the crap out of people and get away with it, he's been boxing for five years, is good at singing and dancing- Kurt was now determined to get Blaine to join Glee Club-, plans to open up his own boxing gym one day, and a few other little things that Kurt stored away in his memory for future use.

The one thing that Kurt learned about Blaine that ticked him off though, was when asked, Blaine said he doesn't do relationships because they're too complicated. He would rather hook up a few times with a person and leave them. And also, Blaine still showed no indication that he was gay.

Blaine learned that Kurt will only drink grange nonfat mocha's when it comes to coffee, that he has never touched cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs, his favorite holiday is Christmas, his favorite color is hazel as of recently, that he wants to go to NYADA, he has an extensive wardrobe and quite the eye for fashion, that he is an extremely light sleeper, he hates rap and country music, his best friend is some girl named Mercedes, he has always wanted a Yorkie but his dad would never let him get one, he has never been in a car accident, he enjoys playing tennis, and a few other things that Blaine stored away in his memory for future use although he had no idea why.

Blaine was also able to deduce from his conversation with Kurt that Kurt was probably gay, too. He didn't know how he knew, he just had a feeling that he was right.

"Well, I should get going now," Blaine said as he rose from his chair.

"Oh, okay," Kurt replied, slightly crestfallen.

"I'll come back later this week if you want, but right now I have some errands to do."

"That's fine, see you later, Blaine."

"Later, Kurt."

Blaine left the hospital room quickly, and practically ran to his motorcycle when when he was out of Kurt's sight. In all actuality, Blaine had no errands to run and had only visited Kurt for a little over an hour. The reason he left so abruptly was because he was starting to freak out as realization hit that he had told Kurt twenty things about himself. That was twenty more things than he should have said. He was letting Kurt in when he shouldn't, but he couldn't help it at the same time. He was going soft, at least he was around Kurt, and he really needed to stop it before it was too late.

Or was it already too late?

Kurt had highly enjoyed his time with Blaine, although it was rather short-lived. Blaine didn't have to visit him; he was just his trainer. But Blaine did visit him, and that was all that mattered to Kurt. A few minutes after Blaine left though, something occurred to Kurt, and it hit him like a punch in the face; he liked Blaine. He already knew that he was attracted to Blaine- how couldn't he be?- but now he realized that he _really liked _Blaine.

Kurt was screwed, because he was fairly certain that Blaine was straight.

But then again, weren't Kurt's eyes a blue-gray? And hadn't Blaine just met him as of recently?

* * *

A/N:

End of chapter 6!

Here's a bit of some relationship development between Kurt and Blaine ;)

I hope you liked the chapter! I was just able to type this tonight because I've busy lately!

I'll edit this chapter tomorrow because some of it may not have made sense, but please excuse me for that because my eyes are burning from looking at the computer screen. It took me 8 hours to write this... I'm quite the procrastinator.

I'm not sure what to say here because it's about 1 am and I'm sooo tired that the letters on the keyboard are getting hard to read! I'm normally up until 3 am, but I was busy today so I'm tired early.

A special thank you to my new reviewers/followers/favoriters: klainefangirl101, abrasionontheknee, justanotherfangurl, lindsaythecat, Tefnut Talvi, Yurushi-Chan, KNdead-poets, slotwinka, elliek11, demimygod35, deebum, DrocoCriss, Weetos, Guest, Nickeltjuh, FireTales2, loverofreading, KagomeGirl021, gjhfgdfsda, pancakebatters, Gracie94, MoonChild8789, Hilleri94, xXxLolliPopKidxXx, rainingstars17, and rai1515!

Thank you all for the feedback! I really appreciate all of it!

See you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put warnings in this story since it is M Rated, but just in case:**

**Warning: Brief mentions of drug and alcohol use. It's not too graphic though, so you should be fine.**

Puck was scared to put it simply. Terrified was more like it. When he saw that guy knock Karofsky out earlier that morning he recognized him instantly as Blaine Anderson, whom he had unfortunately met in juvenile hall.

When Puck had his waffles stolen that time, Blaine had taken the waffles from the guy who stole them from Puck and shoved them down his throat while cussing him out and saying that he shouldn't be rude to people without a reason. While Blaine had stood up for Puck in a way by doing that, what he did to the other boy was horrifying. Guards had to come and help the other kid, because the waffles got lodged in his throat and he stopped breathing. Puck never had his waffles stolen again.

Blaine was rough, tough, and didn't give a damn about what he did. He got into at least three fights a day while he was there, and how the kid's looked when he was done beating them to a bloody pulp would be forever imprinted into Puck's memory. Blaine never lost a fight, and they never lasted over a minute. Puck was smart enough not to provoke Blaine while he was there, but he was only in juvie for two and a half weeks. Now Blaine would be going to McKinley, and Puck already knew that he was an idiot and would more than likely do something to offend Blaine.

Puck's reputation as the school's badass was shattered with Blaine there, and now he had to be extra careful with his actions so that his bones didn't suffer the same fate.

* * *

Blaine had an anxiety attack when he got home from the hospital. God, he was an idiot. He was letting Kurt in, telling him things about himself that he shouldn't. Kurt was just another person he trained at the gym, he had no meaning to Blaine. Oh, but that's where Blaine was wrong and he knew it; Kurt was growing on him more and more everyday. Kurt's smile was infectious, he lit up a room when he entered one, he unknowingly cheered Blaine up when he was having a bad day at the gym and his soft, melodic laugh pulled at Blaine's heart.

Fuck.

Blaine had turned into a marshmallow. Kurt had all his walls crumbling down and he didn't even know he was doing it. Blaine had swore that he wouldn't let people in and get to really know him, because people were cruel and just out to hurt you, put you down and make you feel worthless. The only person who Blaine allowed himself to be close to was Cooper, because he had saved Blaine from their controlling and abusive parents.

Oh shit, his parents.

Blaine hated his mother and father with a fiery passion that is rare to see anywhere else besides the deepest level of hell. They scarred him for life in both the mental and physical sense of the phrase, and for that Blaine will never forgive them.

Memories of the past hit Blaine like a tidal wave, and he needed something to get his mind off of them _now._ It was about three in the afternoon at the moment, and Blaine just happened to know of a business that will have just opened a few blocks away. Well, it was like a business in the sense that it sold things for cash, but it was also not run in a building and was highly illegal. It would do, and Blaine has been there plenty of times before anyways.

Blaine made sure that he had his wallet on him, and then walked back out the front door and down the street. He didn't take his motorcycle this time, because he knew that he would be in no condition to drive after he was done with where he was going. Cooper would probably kill him later for this, but it would be a small price to pay. Blaine just needed to escape from reality and thoughts of Kurt for a little while. Was that too hard to ask? He didn't think so.

Blaine walked down the sidewalk, smirking at how people backed slightly away from him. These people knew better than to mess with Blaine and get in his way, and knew what would happen if they did. Blaine had two blocks left to go until he got to his destination, and pulled the money out of his wallet in advance so that he could get this over with as quickly as possible. A few minutes later he rounded a corner into a small alley and was met with two familiar people.

"Hey, it's Anderson!" one of the men called, nudging the other man in the side until he turned around.

"It is Anderson," the other man commented, smiling devilishly. "I haven't seen you in a while kid, where have you been?"

"Around," Blaine answered vaguely.

"I see. Now what can I get for you today?"

"The usual."

"You have many different 'usual's' kid. Which one is it right now?"

"The fucking usual, you moron," Blaine said in irritation. He wanted to get this part over quickly so that he could revel in the effects as soon as possible.

"Ah, that usual. Coming right up."

The two men separated, one heading towards some bins to the right to get the vodka and shot glasses, and the other to the left to get the marijuana and pipe. Blaine kept watch and made sure that no police drove by, as he always did whenever he came here. Although the men were dressed in all black and wearing hats, it was still daylight and they could easily be seen.

"Here you go, Anderson. You know the deal, you pay for how much you take," the second man said as he handed the alcohol over to Blaine.

Blaine didn't know their names, and the only reason the men knew his was because they heard about him on the streets. These two were as sly, sneaky, and crafty as they came. Their 'business' was unique, at least around this area, because most people like them just sold their products and told people to leave. But these guys ran a pay as you go type of thing.

Blaine took the bottle of Vodka and shot glass and poured himself his first shot. The glass looked like it hadn't been washed in who knew how long, but that wasn't important right now. Blaine downed the shot quickly and poured another. He wanted to get away from everything, and one shot wouldn't be nearly enough.

Two shots.

Three shots.

Four shots.

Five shots.

Six shots.

Blaine stopped at six; that was when his vision started to get a little fuzzy, but not too much. The rest would start kicking in soon enough. He handed the vodka bottle and glass back to the man, and took the drugs from the other. He took his preferred amount from the bag and put it in the pipe, then took his first drag. He felt himself relaxing and his worries slip away soon as he continued to take drags. He stopped after a few minutes and handed it back to the first man, then handed over the money he owed.

"Nice doing business with you, kid," the second man said. "You have a nice day."

"Will do," Blaine replied, his words already slurring together.

Blaine was glad that he hadn't ridden his motorcycle, because he could barely walk in a straight line on his way home. He had almost walked into a stop sign, and nearly got hit by a car when he abruptly crossed into the street. When he finally did get to his house, it took him about three minutes to unlock the door because he had trouble getting the key into the lock.

Once Blaine successfully got inside he went to his room to lay down, but tripped on the carpet in the hallway and fell flat on his face. "Wammit," he slurred, then broke out laughing because he couldn't even cuss correctly. Everything was funnier when he was drunk and high.

* * *

Cooper impatiently glanced at his watch yet again and then to the door of his gym, willing Blaine to walk through it and have a damn good explanation as to why he was thirty minutes late for work. Blaine was never late. Ever. He took his job seriously, and that was why Cooper trusted him with so many things and let him have as much freedom with it as he did. But Blaine was late now and hadn't called or even sent as much as a text message saying that he would be in soon. This was all very unusual and Cooper was starting to worry, which was ultimately distracting him from his own job.

Ten minutes later, Cooper decided to call Blaine and find out what the hell was going on because he had people to train who were wondering where the hell their trainer was. He apologized profusely for his brother's absence to the disgruntled gym members before striding to his office, dialing Blaine's number along the way. Cooper leaned against the door and glared at the wall across from him when the line rang four and a half times before being answered by a very inebriated sounding Blaine.

_"Cooper?" _Blaine slurred, pronouncing his brother's name in two syllables with a noticeable break in between them.

Cooper cussed under his breath and banged his head against the door, squeezing his eyes shut. Great, Blaine was drunk again. This wasn't too much of a regular occurrence, but it did happen every once in a while. However, his younger brother had never been so stupid as to drink when he had to work later that day, so this was a first. When Cooper really thought about it though, it was actually good that Blaine hadn't shown up to work, because having him come to the gym drunk would be undeniably worse than him not showing up at all. Still, it was the principal of the matter.

There was a major downside to drunk Blaine though; he was one of those emotional drunks who gets all weepy and pours his heart out to anyone he encounters. It wasn't pretty to put it lightly. Blaine had to stay away from people when he was drinking, because otherwise he would tell them things he would regret in the morning and create a huge mess for himself. Cooper could clearly recall this happening on numerous occasions, especially one particular incident around a year ago.

"Why, Blaine?" Cooper asked resignedly, knowing that the damage was already done and he would have to cover for him tonight.

"I wanted to get away."

So it was another one of those days. Cooper was curious as to what Blaine wanted to 'get away' from this time, but he knew he would get answers later whether Blaine willingly gave them to him or not. Oh, Blaine would end up paying for this too, there was no doubt in that. Cooper was quite creative when coming up with punishments, and had a feeling he would have fun with this one.

"Okay, Blaine. Just lay down for tonight and don't go anywhere, you got it? I'll talk to you about this in the morning."

"Got it, Cooper," Blaine laughed.

Cooper rolled his eyes and cracked a small smile despite himself. "Bye, little bro."

Cooper heard a loud thump on the other line and a muttered curse before the line went dead; Blaine probably fell over or ran into something. Maybe Cooper wouldn't have to get Blaine back for this, he'd pay for it himself in the morning.

Oh who was he kidding? Of course Cooper would get Blaine back for this, he already had some ideas in mind.

* * *

Kurt was watching reruns of _The Vampire Diaries _in his hospital room after his family left for the night at 7:00. They had wanted to stay longer, but Kurt told them to go on with their daily lives and try not to dwell on the fact that he was in the hospital, because all the extra attention made him feel like an invalid. They were hard to budge, but when Kurt added that having visitors over all the time made him remember why he was in the hospital and brought back memories of the attack they relented and went out to dinner.

Kurt was currently at the end of Season 2 of the show, rooting for Elena and Damon, when he heard something slam into the wall down the hall from his room. He immediately muted the show and listened to see if there was another noise, straining his ears. Kurt couldn't think of any reasonable explanation as to what the commotion was, considering the hospital staff tended not to be forceful and loud with any equipment so they wouldn't scare the patients. All was silent for a few seconds until another slam sounded, followed by maniacal laughter. Kurt's blood ran cold at that. Did this hospital have a psych ward? Because it sounded like there was an escaped mental patient outside.

There was more laughing and banging, and Kurt got more frightened because the noise was getting closer to his room. He turned the light and TV off, hoping that maybe if his room was dark the person would ignore him. What if it was a serial killer? A ghost? Michael Myers? The possibilities were endless.

The noise stopped suddenly, and Kurt held his breath, worried what would happen next. Right when Kurt thought that whatever it was went away, the door to his room was flung open and a dark silhouette stepped inside. Kurt let out a scream of terror as the figure nearly fell over, shutting the door in the process. He was trapped inside the room with a psycho.

"Kurttttt?" the figure asked in a garbled voice.

Wait, Kurt knew that voice, as nearly unintelligible as it was. He turned the small lamp next to him back on to see Blaine standing unsteadily by the door. Kurt looked at the clock on the wall to see that it was nearing 11:00 p.m; visiting hours were over.

"Blaine? How did you get here?" Kurt asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow as Blaine wobbled.

"A cab, of course."

"Are you drunk?"

"Absolutely."

Kurt let out a short laugh since he didn't know what else to do; this situation was rather odd. "How did you manage to get into my room?"

"I'm very sneaky and got past the nurses outside! But shhh! It's a secret, don't tell!" Blaine yelled while gesturing wildly with his hands.

Yes, Blaine certainly was drunk. This was bad though, because Kurt didn't really know how to handle drunk people. But before he could say anything, Blaine ran towards Kurt and grabbed his face in his hands, surprising the hell out of him and making his eyes widen almost comically so.

"Kurt, I have something I need to tell you, and I need to tell you now!" Blaine shouted.

Kurt could smell the alcohol on Blaine and cringed away. "Okay, but could you maybe let go of my face first?"

Blaine thought hard for a moment, then nodded his head and let go of Kurt before plopping down into a chair by Kurt's hospital bed.

"So what did you want to tell me?" Kurt asked, smiling gently. You're supposed to be gentle with people when they're drunk, right? He hoped so, because if not then he had no idea what he would do.

Blaine looked at Kurt for a second, and then burst into tears. The smile instantly dropped from Kurt's face, and he watched in horror as Blaine's body was wracked with uncontrollable sobs. Damn, he really didn't know what to do now.

"Blaine, are you okay?"

"No," Blaine replied, voice cracking.

Kurt's heart broke at that. He wanted to help Blaine, but dammit nobody had ever told him what to do in a situation such as this. He was relying on instinct of what to say to get him through this. "What's wrong?"

"The world's out to get me," Blaine said brokenly.

Now Kurt was confused. "What do you mean?"

"I nearly fail everything at school, my parents hate me, I'm always getting into trouble, I'm always at work and then there's you!"

"What?" Kurt asked disbelievingly. "What did I do?" He couldn't recall ever doing anything to trouble Blaine or make him uncomfortable in any way. Unless Blaine had noticed him stealing longer than necessary glances at him at the gym and was creeped out by it because he's straight. Oh no, that was it, wasn't it?

"What didn't you do? You're stupid with your stupid eyes that mesmerize me, that damn hair of yours that looks so silky and your stupid flawless skin that looks so smooth. You're stupid, Kurt! I'm not a good person, but your personality makes me want to be a good person, and I don't like it!"

Kurt didn't know whether to take all of that as a compliment, an insult or just deduce it to be a drunken rambling. Maybe it was a combination of all three? Where did he even start with what Blaine said though? His parents? That sounded serious. "What's wrong with your parents?"

Blaine sniffled a few times before answering. "I don't know, I haven't spoken to them in five years."

"Five years?"

"Yeah, they disowned me."

Kurt gasped in surprise; how could someone disown their own child? Kurt couldn't ever imagine that happening to him or Finn, and it was hard to believe that happened to Blaine. "Why did they disown you?"

"Because they hate me."

The short, uninformative answers were starting to get frustrating for Kurt. Although he enjoyed seeing Blaine, he didn't know why he was here exactly. Blaine said he had something to tell Kurt, but he wasn't getting any solid information out of him yet. "And why do they hate you?"

"Because I'm gay!" Blaine exploded, hands clenching into fists at his sides.

Kurt's jaw dropped in amazement of Blaine yet again. He hadn't seen that coming, that's for sure. He was almost certain Blaine was straight, and this confession was like a bomb being dropped out of nowhere and exploding, the impact muddling and making making everything hard to process. Should he be happy that Blaine was gay, too? Or sad that his parents had disowned him for it? "What?" Kurt settled on asking.

"Great, you're just as homophobic as the rest of them!" Blaine exclaimed as he stood up from his chair.

"Wait, no! I swear I'm not, I'm gay too!" Kurt called after Blaine, cursing the fact that he wasn't able to get up from the hospital bed.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better and let me down easy!"

Kurt sighed and dropped his head into his hands, because he didn't think even a Google search could tell him how to handle this. Why did his life always have to be so complicated? And what did Blaine mean by letting him down easy?

At that moment though, a miracle happened; Cooper walked into the room. "Where's Blaine?" he asked.

"How did you know Blaine was here?" Kurt inquired, amazed and grateful that someone was here to help him.

"With enough money you can bribe a cab company to tell you anything, like where they dropped your little brother off at," Cooper replied easily as he walked toward Blaine. "What happened to him?"

Kurt told Cooper everything that happened since Blaine arrived, and Blaine was sitting in the corner crying and mumbling to himself the whole time.

Cooper sighed and ran a hand through his hair when Kurt was finished explaining to him. "The kid just dug himself a hole he didn't need to. It's too late now though, so here, I'll give you Blaine's cell phone number and you can call him in the morning and ask him to explain his drunken ramblings more clearly," Cooper said as he grabbed a pen and piece of paper from a table in the room and wrote down the number. "On second thought, don't call him until the afternoon, he probably won't wake up until around noon. I'm sorry you had to see him like this, but I promise he doesn't do this...too often."

"It's okay, I think he just needs to sleep it off," Kurt replied.

"Yeah, yeah he does. Come on Blaine," Cooper said as he grabbed Blaine's arm and hauled him up to his feet.

Kurt watched as Cooper helped Blaine out of the room and listened to their footsteps die away as they got further down the hall. He could have sworn he heard Blaine say 'nobody loves me', and the possibility of him hearing that correctly broke Kurt's heart even more. There was more to Blaine than met the eye, and Kurt was determined to find out everything he could about Blaine. He could tell that Blaine had a dark past, and maybe if he told Kurt about it he could help him heal and become whole again. Kurt was too broken with his own problems to be helped, but there was the possibility that Blaine wasn't.

Kurt turned the light back off and tried to go to sleep. He didn't put _The Vampire Diaries _back on, because he had enough drama in his life at the moment and didn't need anymore, even if it was from a TV show.

* * *

Blaine woke up the next day with a pounding headache. He couldn't remember what happened last night, but he knew that he must have been drinking because he could tell that he had a hangover. And what a hell of a hangover it was.

He opened his eyes slowly, wincing at the sunlight filtering in through his bedroom window. He tried opening his eyes again, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the glass of water and Advil on his nightstand. Oh, but that also meant that Cooper knew he had been drinking, because he was obviously the one who put the medication there. It didn't matter right now though, Blaine just wanted the throbbing in his head to disappear.

Blaine quickly downed the Advil and water, and then attempted to sit up in his bed. He saw his phone flashing with a notification on the pillow next to him, and found that he had a voice-mail from an unknown number. It couldn't hurt to find out what it said, right?

Blaine tapped on the notification and typed in his pass-code to access his voice-mail. He had one new message, and listened as it played out.

_"Hey, Blaine, it's Kurt. Uh, Cooper gave me your number and said to call you, so here I am. Do you remember what you said or did last night? Because if you do then give me a call, because I think you need to explain a few things. I hope your hangover's not too bad, so call me when it goes away. I'll be at the hospital all day, so there's no rush. Bye."_

Oh fuck, now Blaine remembered what happened last night. Shit, he had gotten Kurt involved in something he didn't need to be involved in. Blaine was never going to drink again; it never solved anything, only made things worse.

* * *

A/N

End of Chapter 7!

Did you like it?

Sorry if I didn't explain the taking shots and drug use completely right, I've never done any of those things in my life and don't plan on it. It was bad enough that I had to Google what type of alcohol you take shots with and what's used to smoke drugs with, and I didn't want to Google the details.

And hopefully I described how an emotional drunk acts correctly. I grew up with an alcoholic, but the person was an angry/violent drunk, and I would guess that they're really not alike.

And how ironic is this: before writing this story I've never gotten into a fight, but yesterday I got into a really bad one. But I won it! Ha! I won my first fight! I got my ass kicked pretty bad though and am still sore, but the other person came out worse than me. The worst I've ever done before this is hit somebody with a crutch when they provoked me and I was on crutches.

A special thank you to my new followers/reviewers/favoriters: anderpson, Janto-x-Naomily, primarie, blutbank, NekoFruba9, bxemom, nutmeg6380, with-the-captain, Lari SL, HaileyBailey96, StunningSpellRocks2345, Rayne Moonfyre, harlequinbears, mpharkness19, Aryade, .Black, Cosmos89, tono2221, dapperbabypenguin, neonaur, blondegeek2013, watchingstarkid, whateverworks212, and Asheyyxx!

All your feedback means a lot to me!

Thank you everybody!

See you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	8. Chapter 8

"Hello, little bro!" Cooper sang loudly as he walked into Blaine's room that morning with a tray of food and a small bag. He came up with what he thought was an ingenious idea the previous day to punish Blaine for falling back into his occasional dabbles in substance abuse. He found his plan highly amusing and just too good to pass up, even though it would likely infuriate Blaine. It would be worth it.

Blaine winced and covered his ears. "Keep it down, I have a headache."

"I'm well aware that you do. That was part of your punishment for getting yourself drunk and probably high, also. Anyways, I made you breakfast."

Blaine eyed the platter of eggs, toast, a banana and glass of orange juice warily. "What's the catch? You're never this nice." This was... unusual behavior from his older brother to say the least. The last time he could recall Cooper making him breakfast was when he was about six or seven, and it had been cereal, which Cooper spilled on him.

"Well, I figured that today would be a good place to start. I even bought you a gift, here," Cooper replied as he handed Blaine the bag.

Blaine took it hesitantly, and when nothing exploded in his face after a few seconds he opened it. And had no idea what it was. "What is this?"

Cooper took the item from the bag and held it up. "This, young hungover one, is a gold spray painted #1 trophy. I thought it was obvious." He could barely conceal the goofy smile threatening to take over his face, and the snicker building up in his throat was almost painful to hold back.

"What's it for?"

"Ah, the trophy is for being the most unprofessional, idiotic and nit-witted boxing trainer on the planet."

Blaine took the pillow next to him and threw it at Cooper, who easily dodged it, the laughter finally bubbling out of him and coming out in loud guffaws that made his body shake with no longer contained mirth.

"You're lucky I have astounding catlike reflexes, because you would have cleaned the food up off the floor if you made me drop it," Cooper said with a smirk. "And by the way, your face was priceless!"

"You're an ass, Cooper."

"I've heard that many times, you need to think of better insults. However, last night you dug yourself into a hole so deep that I'm in awe of the fact you're not in China right now."

"You know that's not actually possible, right? Never has anyone dug a hole to China."

Cooper set the tray of food down beside Blaine, then smiled devilishly. "Never. Say. Never." The second part of his plan was now commencing.

Blaine looked at his brother confused for a moment, until realization as to what was about to happen hit him. He knew that he would get in trouble for drinking again, but Cooper didn't have to punish him by breaking out into song just as his headache was beginning to fade. "Cooper, dont you-"

"I will never say never!" Cooper started singing, surprisingly well and on-key. "I will fight till forever! Blaine, you better get rid of that frown, you look like a wounded hound!"

"Cooper, I swear to God, if you don't stop right n-"

"Give it up, sad pup, smile for your closeup!"

"That's not even how the song-"

"I never thought you would be in more need of a shower, you smell like rotted debris! I'm strong enough to take your glower, and I'm fast enough to outrun you, I guarantee!"

Blaine jumped out of bed and charged at Cooper, ready to punch him for bringing his headache back. "You idiot, this doesn't even make sen-"

"Then to the hospital you can go back!" Cooper started as he ran out of the room and down the hall from Blaine, singing even louder along the way. "Or give Kurt a call back! His number I know you have! So come on Blainey, we both know you and Kurt equal destiny!"

Cooper sang the last part of the song just as he reached his room, and then proceeded to run inside of it and lock the door. Blaine got there seconds later and banged his fist against the door in frustration.

"Dammit Cooper, what's wrong with you?" Blaine demanded.

"I told you I can run faster!" Cooper replied brightly from the other side of the door.

"Now my headache's worse. You can go to hell."

"I'll see you there! What level do you think we'll be in?"

Blaine contemplated breaking the door down so he could kill his brother, but then shook the thought from his head because he knew Cooper would make him fix and possibly replace it, and he really didn't feel like doing either of those.

Blaine shot one last death glare at Cooper's door, then walked back down the hall to his room.

* * *

After Blaine ate the food Cooper made for him- which he hated to admit was actually pretty good- he took a shower and got ready for the day. He was dreading calling Kurt back, and just the thought of actually seeing him in person made him cringe.

Blaine had seriously screwed up last night.

Kurt probably thought that Blaine was unprofessional like Cooper said, and that he broke under the slightest amount of pressure. The sad thing was that both of those were true in a way. Blaine was just Kurt's trainer, not his friend, and definitely not someone he should use for a shoulder to cry on. But the more Blaine thought about it, the more he realized that he did want to be Kurt's friend, and dare he think it...possibly more.

Yes, Blaine was starting to like Kurt. During the few weeks he was training him, Kurt somehow managed to worm his way into Blaine's heart. Kurt was nice, caring, down to earth, funny, witty and every other good personality trait there was. Blaine wasn't good. Blaine was closed off, mean, a troublemaker, careless and basically every bad personality trait there was. There was no way Kurt could ever like a person like him.

But what could Blaine tell Kurt? How would he explain last night to him? They sort of knew each other, but Blaine didn't think he knew Kurt well enough to tell him about his past. He was sure he could trust Kurt, but Blaine wasn't one to pour his heart out to people normally, unless there was alcohol involved. Which was what happened last night. Blaine didn't really have a choice though, because he already told Kurt things that he was obligated to further explain.

Why did he have to be such a dumbass?

Figuring that he might as well get it over with, Blaine grabbed his keys and headed out to his motorcycle so he could go to the hospital. If he delayed the inevitable confrontation any longer he knew he would think too much about it and end up changing his mind. His movements were somewhat robotic though, and he felt as if he were heading to his death sentence.

When he got outside, Blaine saw Cooper getting into his own car. "Were are you going? You don't go to the gym for another hour."

Cooper tried to go for nonchalant as he answered Blaine. "I have some...errands to run first."

Blaine looked to Cooper questioningly for a second before shaking his head and hopping onto the seat of his bike. Cooper was hiding something, and if Blaine weren't so nervous about facing Kurt he would have prodded him for a proper answer.

Blaine would find out what Cooper was up to soon enough anyways.

* * *

Now that the fun part of his day was over with, Cooper had some business to take care of. His mood transitioned from cheery and carefree to guarded and on-alert rather quickly, and he had a sneaking suspicion that Blaine was onto him. That wasn't good, his little brother couldn't know what he was going to do. He didn't know how Blaine would react if he found out about this, but it wouldn't be pretty. He'd have to think up one hell of a cover story for this one if things didn't go precisely according to plan.

Cooper parked his car in front of the alley entrance where the two men leaning casually against the grimy walls could spot him. Even from his car Cooper could see that they noticed him and watched him curiously. He didn't know them personally, hell, hadn't even met them, but he could guess their type fairly well. By now they'd be trying to think of what he'd want to buy, attempting to figure out what he'd be interested in based on his appearance. But Cooper wouldn't be purchasing anything, he came here looking for a fight.

These two assholes had been selling drugs and alcohol to Blaine for who knows how long, and Cooper didn't appreciate that at all. Although it was Blaine's fault for getting into the stuff in the first place, it was obvious he was underage and shouldn't have the substances sold to him. He'd done some research last night, asked around for where these guys were located after getting vague, mostly unintelligible answers from Blaine. Nobody was suspicious though, either because they were just stupid or the people he was inquiring about had people asking about them frequently, Cooper wasn't sure.

Cooper stepped out of his car and took his time walking into the alley, keeping an easy gait. He had some experience in acting, so he knew how to look unsuspecting, as to not immediately draw attention to himself and set off warning bells to the men just yet.

"What can I do for you today?" one of the men asked when Cooper stopped a few feet in front of him.

Cooper eyed the man for a moment before shrugging and crossing his arms over his chest. The guy who spoke to him looked rather thin, or maybe that was just an illusion from the dark, baggy clothes he was wearing. His face was extremely pale though, and the shock of bronze hair and blue eyes contrasted oddly with the rest of his features and appearance. His accomplice was dressed similarly to him, but had tanner skin and sported shaggy blonde hair. Their posture, however, gave away much more about them than their looks did.

"You know Blaine Anderson?" Cooper asked.

The man let out a low chuckle. "I see him around here all the time. Why do you want to know?"

Cooper had to refrain from groaning in frustration. He was going to murder Blaine if that was true and he came he more than he originally thought. Maybe he would install a smoke detector in his brother's room or buy a breathalyzer and test his blood alcohol levels at random times during the night now. "Well, I'm his older brother, Cooper."

"Ah, so Blaine recommended you to us?"

"Not exactly." Well, that wasn't entirely true. When Cooper had questioned Blaine on where he got the alcohol last night he'd suggested that Cooper have a drink himself to loosen up, and said that he knew the perfect place for him to go and get one.

"Then what?" the man asked gruffly.

"I believe you're familiar with my gym?" Cooper watched as the two men shared a quick glance, and he knew that he'd just set off a warning bell to them. Boxing wasn't something they dealt with, so any mention of it was bound to elicit some kind of reaction from them.

"The boxing one?"

"Yes."

"What's that to me?"

Cooper smirked and cracked his knuckles- the latter of which wasn't exactly necessary, but he was one for theatrics. "I came here to show you what kind of work I do at my gym."

The men's eyes widened for a split second, but before either of them could do anything Cooper took four long, swift steps forward and began throwing calculated punches. His victims were taken off guard, giving Cooper the advantage he anticipated. He punched one man in the center of the face, then ducked to avoid the other's swing at him and punched him, too. Cooper knew that taking on two people at a time by himself was a little risky, especially since he didn't know how well these people could fight, but he knew how good he was and wasn't going down unless he took someone with him.

Cooper took a hit to the chest and a few to the side, but he shook them off easily, knowing how to take a punch even though they really hurt. Everything was a flurry of fists flying and grunts of pain for a few seconds, until Cooper unexpectedly jumped to the side and grabbed a crate of alcohol. He grabbed a bottle of something and smashed it over one of the men's head, then swung the whole crate around and hit the other man- the one with the sickly looking pale skin- in the face when Cooper saw him charging at him.

The man cried out in pain and fell to the ground, his face bleeding and bruised. Cooper turned back around and took a punch in the chest again from the other man, then hit him in side side of the head with all the force he could muster. The man instantly fell to the ground in a heap, unconscious.

Cooper turned to face to one man who was still conscious, barely, and spoke in a low voice. "Don't even think of selling anything to my brother again. You know what'll happen if you do."

And with that said, Cooper turned on his heel and walked back to his car with his head held high. It was only when he got to his gym that he assessed his injuries. Nothing too bad; a few minor cuts and bruises that would eventually fade. But damn, they did fucking hurt.

At least his errands were done, though.

* * *

Blaine was pacing back and forth outside Kurt's hospital room, trying to work up enough courage to open the door. Every time he grasped the handle he would think of some reason to back down and return home. This happened precisely twenty-one times in the past forty minutes he was there. It was a wonder that no hospital staff had wandered by and asked Blaine to state why he was simply standing outside one of the patient's rooms.

Finally, after figuring that he may as well get it over with, Blaine took a deep breath, gripped the handle and opened the door.

...And stayed rooted to the spot in the doorway, holding his breath and hoping he hadn't been heard.

Kurt was reading a book in disinterest, mostly just flipping through the pages and skimming the words with his eyes. His mind kept drifting off and he couldn't focus on anything. He'd been like that all day. But out of his peripheral vision he saw the door to his room crack open and nobody walked in. Kurt set the book down on his bedside table and turned his body toward the door. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Shit," Blaine cursed under his breath.

"Blaine?" Kurt asked in surprise

Blaine cursed under his breath again, knowing that Kurt recognized his voice already and there was no turning back now. "Uh, hi," he said as he awkwardly stepped into the doorway.

"Hi," Kurt replied quietly.

"Should I just...leave?"

"Oh, no! Um, come in and have a seat."

Blaine hesitated for a moment, then did as Kurt said and took the chair next to his hospital bed. Both boys were quiet as they thought of something to say to the other. Kurt was still surprised Blaine even showed up, because if he was being honest he didn't expect any kind of reply from him for days, and an actual visit was the last thing he thought he'd receive. Blaine just wanted to get the rejection he was sure he'd get over with, so he spoke up first.

"I'm so, so sorry about last night. I shouldn't have done that. I don't know what I was thinking, but, well, I was drinking so I wasn't really thinking, and-"

"Blaine," Kurt cut him off and smiled, "stop babbling."

"Sorry."

"And stop apologizing. I've also had some...bad experiences with alcohol, so I know what it's like."

"You told me you've never drank that time we played twenty questions."

Kurt grimaced slightly. "I lied because I don't like to talk about it. Basically, this old friend of my Glee Club instructor gave me alcohol once and I drank too much of it, showed up at school completely drunk, mistook my OCD guidance counselor as Bambi and threw up on her shoes."

Blaine pretended to cough and Kurt rolled his eyes and laughed himself. "It's fine, you can laugh. It was horrifying at the time, but when I look back at it it was pretty funny."

Blaine didn't hold back his laugh this time, but schooled his features quickly. "I understand though if you don't want me to be your trainer anymore once you get out of here." He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the words to come, for Kurt to turn his back on him like everyone else always did.

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Why wouldn't I want you as my trainer?"

Blaine opened his eyes slowly, clinging onto the small sliver of hope he saw against his better judgement."Well, I was really unprofessional, and-"

"Blaine," Kurt cut him off again and sighed, "of course I want you to still be my trainer. Everyone makes mistakes, it's fine." Was Blaine crazy? Kurt wouldn't want anybody else to teach him how to box, Blaine was practically perfect for him.

"Are you sure?"

"Completely sure."

Blaine breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "I should probably explain what I started talking about last night then now that's out of the way."

"No," Kurt said firmly, looking Blaine in the eyes.

"What?"

"I can tell you're not ready to tell me that right now, but I'll be there for when and if you ever decide to tell me. I want to be your friend, Blaine, and I don't want to push you to tell me something you're not ready to."

Blaine stared at Kurt for a long time before he spoke, trying to think of why Kurt was being so nice to him. "Um, thanks. I could use a friend," Blaine said in almost a whisper.

Kurt smiled brightly at this, and Blaine could have sworn his heart stopped beating in his chest knowing that Kurt was smiling like that at him. _Because of him._

"I do have one question about something you said last night, though," Kurt said after a minutes pause.

"What?" Blaine asked. He would gladly answer anything Kurt asked at the moment if it made him smile like that again. Blaine had never seen someone smile so brightly, having it reach their eyes which crinkled just a bit but shined with happiness. He knew that sounded sappy as hell, but Blaine had long accepted the fact he turned into gooey marshmallowly mess.

"What did you mean by me letting you down easy?"

Anything but that, Blaine thought. Kurt really did have a knack for asking the worst and most awkward questions. Maybe he'd get Kurt a trophy, too, and they could match or something. Blaine laughed humorlessly and averted his gaze to the floor. "You really want to know?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to."

Blaine slowly looked up and met Kurt's steady gaze. It was now or never. He would put this out there and it would be up to Kurt how things went from here, although he did have a preference as to how he wanted things to turn out. "I said you were letting me down easy, because I thought you didn't like me. That you couldn't like me. Because I like you, Kurt, I think I _really _like you."

Kurt gasped softly and said nothing. He was having trouble comprehending what Blaine said, that this was actually happening to him. Nobody had ever liked Kurt that way, and the fact that _Blaine _was saying he did was nearly unbelievable to him. So many emotions flooded through Kurt at that moment that he forgot to answer Blaine, hell, he almost forgot to even breathe.

"That's what I thought," Blaine said bitterly as he got up from his chair and made to turn around.

Those words snapped Kurt out of his trance at once, and he would have rolled his eyes and smacked a palm to his forehead if the situation present weren't so serious. It seemed as if his silence was often misinterpreted as rejection by Blaine, when it was really meant as the opposite. But Blaine had already taken a couple steps toward the door, and Kurt couldn't get up and turn him back around to have a proper conversation and explain that he wasn't rejecting him.

Words didn't get through to Blaine as much as actions did though, regardless of what was going on, and Kurt could only think of one solution with that in mind. There was one thing he could do to convince his oblivious boxing trainer he wasn't being rejected, although it was bold, risky and not something Kurt would normally do. But it had to work. It _needed _to work, because it was all he had. "Blaine, stop!" Kurt called.

He didn't know why he did it, but Blaine turned around and looked brokenly at Kurt, not being able to meet his eyes. Maybe it was the blatant desperation in his voice, or maybe Blaine just wanted to hear Kurt's parting words. Kurt, however, grabbed the front of Blaine's shirt, pulled him down to his level and pressed his lips firmly to Blaine's.

Blaine gasped in surprise at the kiss, having it being the last thing he expected from Kurt. Kurt took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, and moved his lips more fervently against Blaine's. Blaine reached a hand out and caressed Kurt's cheek softly, sighing in delight. He was take off guard, but the surprise was more than welcome.

Kurt tried to convey just how much he liked Blaine into the kiss, and hoped that it worked. He wanted to show Blaine that he was far from turning him down, that he was accepting him with open arms and an open heart. Kurt could never reject Blaine, and he wanted him to know that after this kiss.

Kurt pulled away after a few more seconds and smiled as he looked Blaine in the eyes. "I like you, too," he said breathlessly.

* * *

A/N

;)

Hope you liked the chapter!

I know this one was shorter than the other one's have been recently, but my writing time got unexpectedly cut short tonight for reasons.

I hope you liked Cooper's parody of Never Say Never!

A special thank you to my new followers/favoriters/reviewers: LivingThroughFables, dracoqueen, starcrisscolfer, .rocks, Imogedn, EragonArya, Athail, This Story Of Ours, Minxmessanger, sooks, JenScott, stargleek12, cathie08, TakutaNicodemus, blainchel forever, and TheNarglesAreAfterMeCheerio's!

Thank you for all the feedback!

See you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	9. Chapter 9

Blaine felt as if he were floating on cloud nine. He didn't know that kissing Kurt would send such a thrill through him, but it did. Sure, he'd kissed plenty of other guys before and gone much farther with them, but with Kurt it was different. The kiss was soft and sweet and like nothing he'd ever experienced until now. It was refreshing to know that there was something good waiting for him, and all he had to do was reach out and grab it. But that thought of that also scared him, the idea of commitment. Blaine didn't know if it was something he could offer yet.

Blaine was still hovering over Kurt after the other boy pulled away from the kiss, and their lips were mere centimeters apart. Kurt's eyes searched Blaine's, looking for _something, _Blaine wasn't certain what for. He wracked his muddled brain to come up with some words to say, but he drew a blank. He closed his eyes, lashes brushing against Kurt's, and tried to think harder since Kurt was watching him expectantly, waiting for him to break the silence first.

_RING, RING, RING_

Well, that broke the silence. Blaine sighed and moved away from Kurt to fish his phone out of his pocket and see who was calling him. He didn't know whether to be thankful because this would give him more time to think with a viable excuse, or annoyed since it ruined the moment.

Kurt immediately turned his head away in the opposite direction of Blaine as the reality of what he just did came crashing down on him. The kiss was rash, unexpected on Blaine's side, and probably too soon. However, Kurt didn't regret it one bit, and he hoped Blaine didn't either. That should have been his first kiss, he shouldn't have had it stolen from Karofsky. Kurt shivered at the thought of the brutal jock and quickly banished him from his mind; now wasn't the time to reflect on the attack.

Kurt timidly looked toward Blaine again just as he answered his phone. He picked up his own cell phone from the table next to him and pretended to text someone as he didn't want to seem like he was eavesdropping. Upon further inspection he really did have a few text messages- two from Mercedes that he failed to reply to the previous night, one from Rachel inquiring if the hospital had vegan options for meals, and one from Carole letting him know that she'd visit him on her lunch break. He didn't actually reply to any of them though, because he still felt dizzy from kissing Blaine and knew he wouldn't be able to make any coherent responses.

"Hello?" Blaine asked impatiently. He settled on being annoyed once he saw that it was his brother calling.

"_Blaine,"_ Cooper's voice sounded from the other line.

"What do you want, Cooper? I'm...busy right now."

"_Well sorry for interrupting,"_ Cooper said sarcastically, _"but I just got a call."_

"Well who was it, and why does it concern me?"

_"Two words; Terri Braylon. Do I have your attention now?"_

"Shit," Blaine cursed, excusing himself from the room a second later and stepping out into the hall. He'd forgotten all about Terri in recent weeks, but should have known he would get a call from him sometime in the near future because it was a long time since he received his last one. "When, where, and how much is it paying?"

_"One week from tonight at 9 o'clock at some old warehouse in Westerville. I have the address but I'll give it to you later, and its paying $10,000 if you win."_

"Why's it so short notice?" This was weird. Eerie, almost. Blaine always had at least a month to prepare for a fight, oftentimes a little more than that. He was always ready for a fight though since he trained everyday, but still, it was the principal of the matter.

_"Hell if I know, I'm not the one who calls the shots. We both knew what we were getting into when we started this, and part of the deal was that we don't question anything. So, are you in, or are you going to do some major explaining to Terri?"_

Blaine had no desire to explain anything to Terri, he simply accepted whatever he told him to do. To say the least, Terri Braylon wasn't someone you wanted to anger or get on his bad side. Blaine declined participating in a fight once a couple years ago because he didn't feel like being in the match, and that same night he had three men he'd never met before corner him on his way home and beat the crap out of him. He ended up being in the fight and winning, but learned to never mess with Terri again. Terri was powerful in this area and could crush him like a bug.

But Blaine did feel conflicted for the briefest of moments. It was because Kurt made him want to be a better person, and competing in an underground boxing match wouldn't be helping him achieve that status at all. What Kurt didn't know couldn't hurt him though, and there was an obvious answer as to what he would do. "I'm in."

_"Good, so I'll call Terri back and tell him. When you're done with whatever it is you're doing, come to the gym. You need to get ready for the match."_

Blaine scoffed at Cooper's statement. "I'm always in shape and ready for a fight."

Cooper was quiet for a minute before speaking, causing Blaine to frown in confusion. _"Well, that's the thing. You're, um, ah, well...just come to the gym as soon as you can. I would tell you the details, but people are looking at me and I have a guy I'm supposed to be spotting in weights right now. I gotta go, bye."_

The line went dead, and Blaine stared at his phone for a while, trying to figure out what Cooper wasn't telling him. The fact that his brother sounded worried about the fight and doubted his abilities even a tiny bit solidified the thought Blaine had; something was wrong. There was something off about the fight, that much was obvious. The question remained though; what?

Blaine shook off his feelings or foreboding and walked back to Kurt's room, stuffing his phone back into his pocket along the way. He'd deal with this later, and besides, he didn't need to worry Kurt. "Sorry about that, I got a call about some work," he said, forcing what he hoped was a convincing smile while being vague with his statement. He figured he could say that he participated in boxing matches because Kurt probably suspected it anyway, he just wouldn't get into the dirty details of it.

"Don't you only work at the gym?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, I mean I got a call about being in a boxing match next week."

"Ooh!" Kurt smiled, eyes lighting up. "Like the ones where people buy tickets to and you win prizes or something?"

"Yeah...something like that. Interested much?"

"I always thought guys who box are hot," Kurt blurted out in a rush, face twisting up in horror as he realized what he just said. It seemed like he was losing all his inhibitions today, and if this kept up, who knew what kind of trouble he would find himself in by the end of the day. Did they sell verbal filters in stores? Because Kurt might look into investing in one if they did.

Blaine chuckled, highly amused at Kurt's outburst. "Well, then I must be pretty damn sexy."

Kurt's face erupted in flames, causing Blaine to laugh more at his embarrassment. "It's not funny."

"Yeah it is, and pretty adorable."

Kurt held back the squeal building up inside of him and cleared his throat. He already embarrassed the hell out of himself and didn't think he'd survive another slip-up. "So, do you have to head back to the gym now, or..."

Blaine's smile fell instantly. He and Kurt never got the chance to talk, and there were many things left unsaid. Kurt was still waiting for the words Blaine wasn't sure he could bring himself to say, let alone mean. But Cooper needed him to go to the gym so he could tell him more about the fight, and delaying that may not be a smart move. "Yeah, I probably should. I'll try and visit you this weekend, but would it be okay if I text you when I can't visit?"

"Yes," Kurt answered a little to quickly.

"Okay, cool. And I'm sorry about everything, Kurt, I really am."

Kurt caught the slight edge to Blaine's voice, and it sounded like there was a hidden double-meaning to his words. But it was most likely him just over-thinking things, right? "There's nothing to apologize for, Blaine."

"Thanks," Blaine smiled, looking uncertainly at Kurt as he had difficulty choosing between what he wanted to do and what he should do at the moment. The former won out though, so after another second of hesitation he leaned down and kissed Kurt softly, just a small, barely there brush of his lips, pulling away all too soon. "I have to go now. Bye."

"Bye," Kurt replied, almost in a daze.

Blaine looked at Kurt once more, then walked out of the room before he could talk himself into staying longer.

* * *

Cooper stood impatiently by the gym door, waiting for Blaine to walk through it, hopefully sooner than later. He kept repeating _oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, Blaine's screwed _in his mind, as the attempt to stay calm had long been confirmed as impossible. Cooper felt like his stomach dropped to the floor when Terri told him Blaine's opponent in the match. He first thought he'd heard him wrong or Terri got something mixed up, but neither of those were correct. Blaine was in big trouble now, but he had no choice except to fight.

He was already running through exercises and routines for Blaine to complete, but Cooper wasn't sure if they'd be enough. Experience wouldn't win Blaine this fight, only sheer luck and perfect timing would. And unfortunately, those two things had never been something Blaine was particularly good at. So now the objective wasn't to win, it was to make sure that Blaine came out alive.

Blaine walked in through the doors suddenly, and before he could even look around Cooper grabbed him by the crook of his elbow and rushed him to his office, shutting the door firmly and locking it. "We have a problem," he said, not wasting any time in dancing around the subject and getting straight to the point. Time was of the essence.

Blaine extracted his arm from his brother's tight grasp, waving Cooper off as he muttered a brief apology. "What?" He had to admit that he'd been a little anxious on the drive over, because nothing ever fazed Cooper. But whatever was with this match had his brother scared, something that was about as rare as a unicorn flying down from the moon and walking down the street, greeting random strangers in German. It just didn't happen.

Cooper sighed deeply and ran a hand down the front of his face before speaking. "You're going up against Wyatt Vincent in the match."

Blaine's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and he tried to think if that name was familiar to him or not. He decided that it wasn't after a minute, which was strange, because he made it a priority to know most people in the business he was involved in."That doesn't ring any bells."

"Well you might be falling victim of a knockout bell soon, because the kid is not only nineteen and has been boxing longer than you have, but he's also 350 pounds."

Blaine's jaw dropped as he let that bit of information sink in. This wasn't possible, there was too much of a difference between him and his opponent. That jock at McKinley that he scared off was much bigger than him too, but Blaine _knew _that he couldn't fight, and that's why he knew he could take him if it came to it. But this was different, much, much different. This was bad. Things like this didn't even happen under normal circumstances, he always got paired with guys who were roughly his size at least. "He might kill me."

"Ding, ding, you got that right. I thought it was him the first time I talked to Terri and he mentioned the name Vincent, but I wasn't sure, and that's why I just told you to come here. Terri gave me the kid's first name too when I called him the second time, and then I knew it really was him. You need to train, Blaine, starting now."

Blaine was still having trouble processing everything, and accepting it wasn't something he'd yet to do. He wanted so bad to believe this wasn't real, but Cooper wouldn't lie to him about this. "How could they do that? I only weigh 135, he's more than twice my weight," he choked out, meeting Cooper's unsteady gaze for the first time.

"The match isn't legal, so technically they can do anything they want to. The goal now isn't to win, it's to make sure he doesn't fucking snap you in half. You may be skilled, but if this guy charges at you, you're done for."

"What do you mean my goal isn't to win? I've never lost a match before," Blaine said, looking offended despite the situation. His opponent may sound terrifying to go up against, but he was still going to make sure he won. It would just take more effort along with impeccable observance on his part. No, he wouldn't let himself think that this was over before it even began.

Cooper looked pointedly at his brother and shook his head. "Blaine, he hasn't either."

* * *

Blaine's legs were burning and felt like they were on the verge on falling off. He'd pushed on for a while now, but he needed to stop and take a break or else he'd collapse and fly off the treadmill, hitting the wall behind him. "Cooper, I can't fucking run anymore! Can I get off the machine?" Blaine snapped, though his words didn't sound angry or threatening like he wanted them to since he was gasping for air and panting uncontrollably.

Cooper had woken Blaine up at 7 o'clock in the morning to start his training for the day. Blaine had been running nonstop for two hours, and during that time Cooper increased the speed of the treadmill by five notches every twenty minutes, and that was after starting him off at a fast-running pace. Blaine was tired now and would do just about anything to get out of anymore workouts, but he was well aware that wasn't an option.

Cooper took three minutes to contemplate the request, much to Blaine's chagrin. "Fine, but you need to build up your endurance, and you're not going to do that without working hard," Cooper replied from the couch he was lounging on across from Blaine, bowl of popcorn on his lap and watching the movie playing on the large flat screen TV.

Blaine scowled as he turned off the treadmill and wobbled off of it, settling on sitting on the floor for a few minutes because there was no way he could make it to the couch. He really hated Cooper's constant need for theatrics. "I am in shape, but nobody can run for longer than that without taking some sort of break."

"Dad made me run for two and a half hours straight every night during football season in high school, remember? So, yes, it is possible to run longer than you did."

"Whatever," Blaine panted out as he tried to steady his breathing and racing heart. "What do I have to do now?"

Cooper stopped the movie and stood up, smirking at Blaine as he popped a few more pieces of popcorn into his mouth. "We're going to the gym so you can hit the bags for a while."

"But it doesn't open for four more hours."

"In case you haven't noticed, I have the damn keys to the place because I happen to own it," Cooper replied as he rolled his eyes at Blaine. "Honestly, have you somehow lost all your brain cells recently? Or did you just take one too many hits to the head and they're just now starting to kick in?" Ideas of getting his brother a bight pink helmet to wear came to him suddenly, and he was seriously considering buying one. It'd be even better if he could get some witty thing printed onto the front of it, he just had to find a guy to make it work. Cooper always knew he was the creative sibling.

"Shut the hell up," Blaine replied. "I'm riding with you though, because I'm not driving my bike like this."

"Fine with me. Get up so we can go, you're already wasting time," Cooper said, coughing as he nearly choked on a popcorn kernel because he was chewing while talking. His side hurt at the action though, and he grimaced in discomfort before turning to head upstairs before Blaine noticed something off about him.

Blaine glared at Cooper as he started up the stairs, and then slowly got up and lumbered his way to his bedroom, snatching his gym bag before heading to Cooper's car. He knew that his brother meant well, but he was possibly just a little misguided and the workouts he came up with were just plain brutal. He'd be working out all day, the inevitable soreness not something he was looking forward to.

Blaine found himself second guessing his earlier thought that his brother meant well once he arrived at the gym, because on the way over there Cooper blasted country/pop music on the radio purposefully, singing along because he knew Blaine couldn't stand the genres of music. He was ready to strangle Cooper and would have done it too if it wouldn't cause them to probably get into an accident. If he had to listen _one more time _about how one girl wears short skirts while another wears t-shirts he was going to do something drastic.

Cooper just laughed at Blaine when he sent him murderous looks as he wrapped his hands for him. He led him over to one of the heavy bags when he was done and stood back, arms loosely crossed over his chest, waiting until Blaine had his gloves on before speaking, falling into serious trainer mode. "Go for it."

Blaine sent a string of jabs at the bag, frowning when he realized that he was still a bit fatigued from running and couldn't exert the regular force he used on the bags. It was slightly awkward with Cooper just standing there and watching him, and he knew that he was mentally criticizing him, waiting until he had a long enough list of faults until he spoke up and voiced them.

"Your form is off, enough where it's noticeable; you're pushing the bag, don't do that, just hit it; that last string didn't flow well; and you're not hitting as hard as you usually do," Cooper commented in a monotone voice. "Hit it harder, it won't bite."

Blaine grunted as he fixed his stance and punched the bag again, just a little harder this time. "I'm tired. Maybe if you didn't make me run for two Goddamn hours I'd be working these normally."

"Don't get snarky with me, I'm helping you."

Blaine shot Cooper a glance out of the corner of his eye and shook his head, continuing with throwing punches for a few minutes.

"Try putting in some snap punches, you keep pushing the damn thing. I thought I told you to stop that the first time."

Blaine gritted his teeth to stop from saying something that would be sure to piss Cooper off. He was fucking exhausted. Not just because of the running either, but because he only got three hours of sleep, only drifting off at around four because he was thinking of what to do about himself and Kurt all night. He didn't even come to a conclusion either. But with those two combined, Blaine couldn't be blamed too much for not being on top of his game. Of course Cooper would demand perfection, though.

After doing ten snap punches, Blaine looked to his brother to get his feedback, pausing his hits for a moment.

"Good, you finally got it right. Now keep on doing that," Cooper said, nodding his head to the bag.

Blaine turned fully around and playfully punched Cooper in the side, but instead of earning a punch back like he normally did, he elicited a shout of pain from his brother, startling the hell out of him.

"Shit!" Cooper yelled as he clutched his side and squeezed his eyes shut.

Blaine looked on in alarm and confusion, not knowing what caused the outburst. "What happened? I didn't even hit you that hard." It would be ironic if he did since Cooper originally said he wasn't throwing hard enough punches, but that wasn't the case. This wasn't even another one of his random bouts of acting to get a reaction out of people, because Blaine knew that even _Cooper_ wasn't that dramatic unless something was real.

"Nothing, just keep hitting the bags. I'll be right back," Cooper said as he slowly started walking in the direction of the bathrooms, leaving Blaine looking on after him. His side hurt like a bitch all throughout the previous day, but he shook it off and thought it would pass. It didn't. Now he was starting to think that one of those assholes from the alley managed to crack one of his ribs in that fight yesterday, because the pain now was close to unbearable.

Cooper lifted the bottom of his shirt up and looked in the mirror once he got to the bathroom, and saw that the bruises on his side looked worse than they did yesterday. This was just fucking great for him. He needed to work at the gym and prepare Blaine to the best of his abilities for the match in less than a week, he couldn't afford to be injured. He could tough it out for awhile more though, just rest whenever he could and try not to get hit again. Blaine didn't even hit him that hard, yet he was in searing pain.

Blaine waited until Cooper walked into the bathroom and the door closed behind him before he decided to follow his brother. He wanted to know what was going on, and if he caught Cooper off guard he would more than likely get answers. Cooper was known for having a high pain tolerance, so there was something majorly wrong with him, that was obvious. However, Blaine didn't expect to see the angry bruises covering Cooper's side when he entered into the bathroom.

"What the fuck happened to you?"

Cooper whipped around in surprise at Blaine's voice, wincing loudly at the movement. "I told you to keep hitting the bags, what are you doing here?" His brother was a nosy little shit, he should have known and gone into the private bathroom in his office where there was a lock on the door.

Blaine stepped further into the room, keeping his eyes on Cooper's wound. "You didn't answer my question; what happened to you?"

"I fell off my tricycle and hurt myself," Cooper replied sarcastically. "What do you think happened? I got into a fight."

"When?"

"I told you I had some errands to run yesterday. But don't worry, I'll be fine."

Blaine sighed; Cooper had always been hard-headed and adamant about things, not caring if he was right or wrong. Things were his way or the highway. It took a skilled person to get him to see reason and be logical. "Cooper, that doesn't look good. Maybe we should go to a doctor."

"They don't open for another few hours, and I said I'll be fine," Cooper insisted, letting his shirt fall back down into place.

"Okay, then we'll just go to the hospital, they're always open," Blaine said. "Give me your keys, I'll drive."

"I'm not going to a motherfucking hospital."

Force and threats were a Plan B to use on Cooper when simple logic was rendered unsuccessful. To be honest, those were what were often used to work for Cooper, actually. "I'll just call an ambulance then."

Cooper narrowed his eyes and scowled. "You wouldn't." Blaine wouldn't do that to him, wouldn't subject him to the humiliation of being shoved in the back of an ambulance kicking and screaming, because that's how it would turn out. There was no way he was going down without a fight.

"Try me," Blaine said pointedly, giving Cooper a knowing look and smirking rather vindictively.

Dammit, yes he would do that to him. Little brother's were the worst sometimes. "Why, Blaine?"

"We both know that doesn't look good, and it'll only get worse of you don't get it treated properly.

Cooper was silent for a moment, knowing that Blaine had him beat but not wanting to admit it. He was getting him back for this, making him his personal servant maybe if he was put on bed-rest. It would almost be worth it, almost, but he didn't really have a choice when he knew what the other option was. "Fine, we'll go to the hospital," he relented after a minute.

Blaine grinned in triumph. "Still waiting on those keys."

* * *

"What are the magic words?" Blaine asked on the ride home from the hospital once they were around five minutes away. He couldn't stop grinning like a damn fool ever since they left the place. The smile on his face didn't even falter when an elderly woman rammed into him with her wheelchair in the designated parking area for the emergency room patients. There was no sweeter victory than proving yourself right over Cooper, and nothing could taint the joyful mood one was put in after achieving the extremely coveted triumph.

"Go to hell?" Cooper offered without pause. He wasn't amused with his brother in the least, nor the news of his injury that the doctor gave him. But his grumpiness only seemed to fuel Blaine's entertainment of poking fun at him.

"No, I believe they're, 'You were right, I was wrong.'"

"Go to hell."

"I told you so," Blaine said smugly.

Cooper's x-rays revealed that he had a cracked rib. The doctor prescribed some pain medication and told him to ice his ribs for the next couple days along with getting rest. Much to his chagrin, Blaine told him that he'd keep the gym closed for the next few days too, since Cooper couldn't work and Blaine needed to train for his match. Cooper wasn't too enthusiastic about the whole situation.

Blaine pulled into the driveway of the house and put the car into park, then jogged around to the passenger side and opened Cooper's door for him, making a grand gesture of the simple act. Cooper huffed in annoyance and stepped out, flipping Blaine off along the way. Blaine closed the car door and walked ahead of his brother to unlock the front door, motioning for him to go in ahead of himself.

"You know, I'm not an invalid," Cooper snapped once he and Blaine were inside.

"I know."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Having fun, annoying you, anything along those lines, really," Blaine said, shrugging nonchalantly but smiling playfully. "So do you want me to make you some soup or something?" he joked.

"Sure," Cooper replied as he began walking at a leisurely pace to his bedroom. "You forced me out of work for a while and now all I can do is rest, so I might as well utilize you acting as my personal servant while I can." There wasn't a chance in hell he was passing up such a golden opportunity when it was so openly presented to him.

Blaine stared at his brother's retreating back with his mouth gaping open in surprise. He should've known that Cooper would pick up on his joke but make him make the soup anyways. He put himself up for that one. "Well, that's a nice way to put it."

"The best!"

The door to Cooper's room slammed shut down the hall, and Blaine let out a short laugh. He had to make soup. Blaine couldn't cook if his life depended on it, he always either ate whatever Cooped cooked or ordered out for meals. There was no way he could make soup from scratch, but didn't Cooper always keep some cans of Campbell's in the pantry? He should be able to follow instructions without messing up too badly. How hard could they be?

Blaine wandered into the kitchen and opened the pantry up, scanning the shelves until he found cans of chicken noodle soup and snatched one. "Bingo," he whooped. He moved to the bottom cupboards next and looked through each one until he found the one that housed the pots and grabbed the first one his hand came in contact with, which happened to be one large enough for about twenty cans of soup.

He turned one of the burners on the stove on next, put the pot the burner, lit it, poured the soup in and then added a can of water to it as the instructions stated to do. The whole thing seemed pretty simple to complete, so Blaine just leaned casually against the counter and became absorbed in his thoughts as he allowed enough time for the soup to cook.

Blaine didn't know that you had to stir the soup or that it only takes about five minutes to cook properly, not twenty.

The sound of the smoke alarm blaring over the stove abruptly cut Blaine out of his thoughts, and he immediately turned his attention to the soup, which was engulfed in smoke. "Dammit!" he swore, looking around frantically until he spotted a dish towel lying on the counter. He picked it up and swatted it over the soup in an attempt to clear the smoke, but the end of the towel caught on the flame from the burner, setting that part of it on fire.

He help the towel at arms length as not to set his shirt on fire and ran to the kitchen sink, dropping the towel in it and switching on the faucet to put the fire out with water. The pot was still smoking, and Blaine coughed a few times since it was spreading all throughout the kitchen.

"Do I have to call 911?" Cooper shouted from down the hall.

"No," Blaine replied quickly, "I have this under control." That last comment was a blatant lie; he didn't have a clue what to do. But he knew that he shouldn't panic, panicking would only make the situation a thousand times worse, and he wasn't sure he could handle things as they were.

"Imagine the story they'll put on the news tonight about how some idiotic teenager caught his house on fire, and a rescue team had to help his poor, injured brother get safely out of the house."

"A news story won't be necessary, I told you, I have this under control!" Blaine replied. "I hope," he added under his breath.

Blaine left the dish towel in the sink with water running over it even after the fire died out, just to be safe, then carefully picked the handle of the pot up and set it down on another burner. He opened the kitchen window and tried to wave the smoke out next, coughing violently while doing so. The smoke alarm ceased its beeping as the smoke dissipated, and Blaine sighed in relief when he found he could breathe easily again.

"Everything just got quiet, did you catch on fire and burn to death or something?"

"No!"

"Good, because someone needs to deliver my soup to me."

Blaine scoffed at Cooper's comment, because he would say something like that. He and his brother had quite an odd relationship and their personalities clashed on a daily basis. Only, they somehow managed to make things work and haven't killed each other yet. There had to be some kind of miracle responsible for that one.

Blaine got a bowl and spoon and poured the severely overcooked soup into the former of the two. The food was still steaming, but this was as good as it was going to get. Cooper wouldn't be able to eat it for around half an hour, but that'd be his problem to deal with, Blaine's job was finished after he delivered the soup.

"Thank you, servant," Cooper mocked as he received his soup and set the bowl down on his nightstand. He eyed it skeptically for a moment. "You didn't spit in it, did you?"

"Damn, unfortunately I forgot to," Blaine replied, feigning disappointment.

"Okay, good. Now it's back to training for you. 100 push-ups, fifty chin ups, twenty minutes of lifting the heaviest weights you can without needing to be spotted, and follow any three workout DVD's in the basement. Don't let me catch you slacking off either, I might just go and check up on you. Report back to me when you're done."

Blaine rolled his eyes, having no intentions of training. He figured that now would be an appropriate time to text Kurt as he would likely be awake now; he was sleeping when Blaine stopped by his hospital room earlier while waiting for Cooper's x-ray results to come back. "Fine, whatever."

Cooper nodded and shooed Blaine out of his room, who complied without complaint and ambled down to the basement. Blaine threw himself onto the couch and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, scrolling through his list of contacts until he found Kurt's name- he added it after listening to the voice-mail left by him- and sent the boy a text.

**To Kurt: Hi **

Blaine snatched his earphones off the coffee table in front of him and began listening to music on his phone as he awaited Kurt's reply. He was about a quarter way through singing along to Katy Perry's song _Firework_ when he got a response.

**To Blaine: Hi :)**

Dammit, why didn't he put a smiley face in his message? Emoticons always made conversations lighter, after all.

**To Kurt: How are you?**

Blaine smacked a hand to his face at the unoriginal, cliche, typical text message conversation starter. Now Kurt was going to think he was boring and uninteresting.

**To Blaine: I'm okay, just had a bunch of nurses poking at me but I'm fine. How are you?**

Blaine thought those nurses had some nerve. How dare they disturb Kurt when he didn't want to be bothered by them. Whoa, wait a second, that sounded a little too possessive there.

**To Kurt: Almost caught my kitchen on fire making canned soup.**

Now he just sounded like a damn idiot who couldn't complete simple tasks. Oh, but he was a damn idiot who couldn't complete simple tasks.

**To Blaine: That's Karma getting back at you for eating canned soup in the first place, from scratch is always the way to go :P**

**To Kurt: It was for Cooper, and there would have been a worse fire if I had made it from scratch.**

**To Blaine: So there was a fire?**

**To Kurt: Just a dish towel.**

**To Blaine: Smooth.**

Not as smooth as your skin looks.

Blaine realized a second too late that he actually wrote and sent that statement to Kurt. Shit! Why didn't cell phones have cancel message buttons? It _was_ the twenty first century. Now he sounded like some creepy pedophile with a soft skin obsession. That was definitely _not _part of Blaine's character, he didn't have any obsessions, especially ones that were borderline stalkerish.

**To Blaine: Are you flirting with me?**

Blaine thanked his lucky stars that Kurt didn't feel the need to call Chris Hansen on him. Being arrested on television for screwing up a text message wasn't a very appealing thought. What should he reply though?

**To Kurt: Is it making you uncomfortable?**

**To Blaine: Not at all ;)**

Where the fuck did innocent Kurt go? Not that Blaine had any objections to the unexpected words...

**To Kurt: Good, because I might as well say that you have extremely soft lips while I'm at at.**

Was that too blunt? Blaine never really flirted with guys, he skipped that part and just went straight to fucking them. As crude and horrible as it sounded, it was true.

**To Blaine: And your lips taste delicious. Was that oranges?**

Blaine would eat an orange every day if that's the taste Kurt liked.

**To Kurt: Possibly ;)**

Was the winking face weird? Was he even supposed to put one in the message? Kurt didn't reply right away like he normally did, and Blaine got a little nervous, thinking he did something wrong.

Kurt's message came in three minutes later.

**To Blaine: I have a question for you.**

**To Kurt: Ask away.**

Blaine cringed a bit despite saying that he was open for questions. Things had a tendency to not go well whenever Kurt asked him a question.

**To Blaine: What are we?**

Blaine was screwed. There was no other way to put it.

**To Kurt: What do you mean?**

Play dumb, isn't that what everyone does in these situations?

**To Blaine: Well you said you liked me and I kissed you...**

**To Kurt: I don't do relationships, you know that.**

That looked downright awful put down and sent in words.

**To Blaine: What? But you said you liked me! Were you lying?**

Blaine groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. He fucked up, big time.

**To Kurt: No, but that doesn't mean I have to act on anything.**

He was going to hell. If he wasn't sure before, he was positive now.

**To Blaine: But why?**

This conversation was going downhill very fast.

**To Kurt: I don't do relationships, I only hookup.**

Blaine cringed. Wow, he was the biggest jackass on the whole Goddamn planet. He was deserving of that trophy Cooper bought him.

**To Blaine: So I'm just some cheap chase?**

And the fuckup of the year award goes to...

**To Kurt: No**

Way to sound convincing!

**To Blaine: Well I'm not some slut for you to use! That kiss was a mistake, you can go to hell Blaine! And I hope that you get knocked the fuck out in your boxing match, maybe you'll get some sense knocked into you. Don't bother replying.**

A cussing Kurt was never good. Never.

**To Kurt: Kurt?**

**To Kurt: I'm sorry, that came out wrong!**

**To Kurt: Please don't be angry.**

Blaine waited anxiously for thirty minutes to see if Kurt would reply, but he didn't. He had a feeling that he just ruined one of the only good things in his life at the moment. The conversation was so short though, and yet Blaine was able to mess everything up in such a small amount of time.

He sighed and got up to do that training Cooper assigned him, there was nothing else left for him to do. Maybe working out would take his mind off of how big of a failure he felt he was. But he was kidding himself; what he thought of himself was always at the forefront of his mind.

* * *

Blaine trained hard all week for the upcoming match, but Kurt didn't drift far from his thoughts. He was always there, yet just out of reach. He was like a forbidden treasure that Blaine had somehow gotten a hold of and corrupted, and for that he felt utterly terrible. Blaine concluded that he would give Kurt time before he attempted to contact him again and try to work past what happened, too see if it could be possible. He hoped Kurt would find it in himself to forgive him, but would understand if he didn't.

Throughout the week, Cooper had Blaine run, lift weights, do push-ups, chin-ups, jump-rope, hit the bags at the gym, and any other exercise he could find for Blaine, and he made him do all of that everyday and all day, unless he was at school. Blaine returned to McKinley the following Monday, and the whispers started back up again at his return. He ignored them as best he could. Karofsky didn't seem too pleased with Blaine being back and kept his distance from him. That suited Blaine just fine.

Blaine hadn't gotten a detention all week at school, which was a miracle in itself, but it probably had to do with the fact that he was too tired to get in any sort of trouble. Most of the kids at school avoided Blaine like the plague after they saw how hard of a punch he packed, except for one asshole who had the audacity to get in his face with a camera and demand an interview with him. Blaine punched him in the face. One teacher had seen him do it but said nothing, so Blaine guessed that the kid was annoying and got on everyone's nerves, so the teacher thought he most likely deserved it.

Thursday came around much too quickly, and before he knew it, Blaine was in some warehouse in Westerville getting ready for the match. He was already changed into his boxing shorts and shoes and had all his stuff in his gym bag for when the fight was over, all he had to do was get his hands wrapped and boxing gloves on.

Cooper wrapped Blaine's hands carefully, not wanting to screw anything up. It would only take one mistake and it would all be over. The mistake might not even be his, Blaine could miscalculate something in the ring and get severely injured. A head injury, internal bleeding, broken bones, all of them very possible and not even close to the whole list of things that could go wrong.

Cooper never doubted Blaine's fighting abilities before and he certainly wasn't now, he just had a rather large inkling that the other boy would be better and have the bigger advantage. Blaine was in shape and had the muscles to show for it, but he was just small. He was shorter than the average male, and had a smaller frame. Blaine's competitor was a big, hulking boy who could snap Blaine in half easily if given the chance.

"How are you feeling?" Cooper asked when he finished wrapping Blaine's hands and moved to grab his gloves from his bag.

"Fine," Blaine answered shortly. His mind was too preoccupied to say anything else. He was thinking about the fight, about what moves he could possibly use against his opponent to take him down as fast as possible. Blaine had no intentions of letting the fight go the whole twelve rounds, because that would mean he'd be in trouble and in danger of losing. The fights he was in never lasted long, but then again he knew this one would be very different.

"You know, you don't have to lie."

Blaine glanced at Cooper out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing. He had a fight to focus on, he didn't have time to get into an argument with his brother. This fight was rigged, meant for him to lose. That didn't happen without a reason, but he couldn't recall angering anyone who was involved in the underground boxing business though, so either he did something unknowingly or Cooper fucked something up.

"It's time to head out," Cooper said after a few minutes of tense silence. Blaine nodded his head and let Cooper lead him out towards the ring.

Blaine watched the people around him as he walked, watched how they placed bets with each other and pointed at him as he passed them, a few of them holding fresh drinks in their hands, but most of them were already drunk. These people wanted to see blood, that's what they paid for. They knew the fight wasn't fair, but they didn't care, they probably thought it would even be more entertaining. They were all sick, but Blaine knew exactly what he was getting into when he got involved in this stuff, so it wasn't his place to complain.

He stepped into the ring at the same time his opponent did and listened to the sounds around him. There was an eerie vibe in the warehouse, and he had a feeling that the fight was far from over in more ways than one.

Cooper stood by the first row of bleachers by Blaine's corner, ready to react at a moments notice. These fights were dangerous to attend due to their rowdy crowds, but that danger was nothing compared to the threat of being in the ring. The fights were dirty, more so than in a regular, legal match. Cheating was used often, and he wondered if there would be even more of it in here tonight, because it was no secret that something was already up.

"Hello, Anderson, glad you could make it."

Cooper spun around slowly to see who had spoken to him, and saw that it was Terri. "Where else would I be?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, looking over the short, stout man with distaste; he was the one who finalized the match, so he wasn't exactly in Cooper's good graces at the moment.

"Ah, you're still as snarky as ever I see," Terri laughed. "Have you met my son yet? He's the one who coordinated this fight, recommended Blaine as the other contender himself."

Now that piqued Cooper's interest right away. "No, I don't believe I have."

"Oh, he's right here. Riley!" Terri called to the man facing in the other direction behind him. The other man turned around and kept his head down, his black clothes and hat concealing his identity until he slowly and deliberately raised his head, meeting Cooper's gaze steadily, a mischievous smirk plastered onto his face.

"Actually, we have met. Quite recently too, right, Cooper? It'd be hard to forget my face."

Cooper internally groaned. Oh _fuck, _this was the guy he hit with the crate. This was all his fault.

Suddenly the bell signaling the start of the fight rang.

And Blaine would have to pay for Cooper's actions.

* * *

Blaine started circling his opponent, glaring fiercely at him. Cooper was right when he said this guy had never lost a fight either, because he heard it himself when the announcer listed both their names, weights, and stats. He watched this Vincent character calculatingly, trying to pinpoint any kind of weaknesses he may have. Speed was probably one, but he would make up for that with crushing strength. How had he never heard of him before though? Cooper knew him, but Blaine had no idea he existed until a week ago.

The two fighters watched each other closely, waiting to see who would try and make the first hit. Fire was burning in their eyes and the crowd cheered them on, impatient and wanting the show to begin as soon as possible. Wyatt went first. He launched his fist out and tried to connect it on Blaine's face, but Blaine easily blocked him and hooked him in the chest, grinning vindictively at landing the first successful hit.

Blaine's cockiness angered Wyatt, and and he swung again at Blaine, hitting him in the mouth. Blaine spit out the blood that immediately flooded his mouth and put his hands back up in defense. The two boys circled each other again, waiting to see who would make the next move.

It was Blaine. He stepped to the side and dodged a swing from Wyatt, punching the boy twice in the face, following that with a jab to the ribs. Wyatt growled in frustration and charged at Blaine, cornering in the one of the corners of the ring and repeatedly punching him anywhere he could. Blaine tried to push the other boy off of him, but he was too big. Every hit was more painful than the last, and Blaine was starting to panic when he found that he couldn't get away.

The ringing of the bell was the only thing that saved him.

Wyatt let off Blaine as he went to his own corner, and Blaine shakily walked to where Cooper was waiting for him, spitting more blood out along the way. This wasn't how the first round was supposed to turn out, he wasn't supposed to get injured yet. He was concerned about his well being, not something he planned on happening.

"Fuck, you're bleeding badly," Cooper said as he handed Blaine a bottle of water and plastic cup to rinse his mouth out and spit in.

"Really? I didn't know," Blaine snapped as he dabbed at his face with a towel before the bell rang again and it was time for the second round.

Blaine circled Wyatt once again, watching for any shift in the boy's stance that would indicate he was about to strike. He didn't see any after a few seconds, so acted himself and swung, hitting Wyatt in the chest four times before kneeing him in the stomach. Wyatt grunted in pain and swung at Blaine's head. Blaine ducked the hit and tried to trip Wyatt, but he couldn't because the boy was too _heavy. _He really was at a huge disadvantage.

The bell rang again, and Blaine repeated his actions in his corner from the last time, glad to see that he wasn't spitting as much blood out again though. The break was over soon, and he found himself facing off with Wyatt again.

Wyatt made four consecutive shots to Blaine's side, eliciting a string of curses from him. Blaine ducked another swing at his head from Wyatt- which seemed to be what the boy was mostly going for- but got punched right in the center of his face when he got back up, causing him to fall on his back on the mat. It fucking hurt, and the way his head slammed and bounced off the mat only made things worse.

Blaine scrambled to get back up, but got knocked down again. And again. Could he get a break? Blaine got back up swiftly and stepped to the side, just missing a jab from Vincent. He was just about to land his own hit on the boy when the bell rang again.

Blaine shuffled over to Cooper who was looking at him with extreme concern. "Are you okay? That was not pretty?"

"It didn't feel pretty either," Blaine replied, wincing as he prodded the back of his head. "What the hell is that mat made of?"

"Same thing as all of them are, you just hit it especially hard. Three times. What did I tell you about him not snapping you in half? You're not doing a very good job of insuring you'll come out of this in one piece right now."

"Stop shouting, my head hurts."

Cooper looked skeptically down at Blaine. "I wasn't shouting, I was talking normally."

"Damn concussion," Blaine grumbled as he got back up at the sound of the bell.

Cooper watched the next round of the match even more carefully, keeping a close eye on Blaine. The kid probably did have a concussion after hitting the mat that hard so many times, and so Cooper was prepared to throw in the towel if he needed to. He had never seen Blaine get this injured so early on in a fight, and he felt horrible because it was all his fault. If Cooper hadn't gone and beat up those two guys this fight never would have happened.

The next two rounds were more in Blaine's favor, but not by too much. Blaine managed to give that Vincent kid a black eye and a broken nose, but that was it. Blaine looked like he was getting tired, his moves looking rather sluggish, and his sides and chest were full of bruises and his face was bleeding more every time he went back to his corner after another round passed. Cooper was getting more worried, because the chances of Blaine winning were quickly decreasing. Hell, the chances of him coming out alive were getting lower, too, because that other boy kept going for lethal head shots.

It was the seventh round though that things got much worse.

Blaine and Wyatt were throwing punches back and forth at each other at a equal pace, but Wyatt got a hold of Blaine's left arm and held it. Cooper squeezed his eyes shut, knowing what would happen next, but also knowing that there wasn't enough time for him to stop it. When Blaine's scream pierced the air he knew it was done; his arm was broken.

Cooper opened his eyes back up to see Blaine clutching his arm and gritting his teeth in obvious pain. Blaine tried halfheartedly to fend off Wyatt's strikes as the final seconds of the round ticked down, but ended up getting punched a few more times before the bell rang.

Blaine trudged over to his corner and sat down heavily on the stool waiting for him when he got there. He held his arm tightly to his chest as waves of sharp, excruciating pain washed over him. Five rounds. That's how many were left, and he wasn't sure anymore if he could last that long. He only had one arm to swing with, and that left him sorely open for for an attack.

"Do you want to throw in the towel?" Cooper asked as he stood in front of Blaine.

"No," Blaine gritted out, wincing as another sharp pain went through his arm.

"You can't even fight properly."

"I have to win."

Cooper pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes as he shook his head in exasperation. "You don't need to win! It's not worth it if you get killed out there, which is looking more possible every minute."

"I'm going to win," Blaine said, his tone allowing no room for disagreement. He didn't know how he would win, he just knew that he literally _needed _to. He wasn't weak, he had to show that he was worth something, and losing this fight would be contradictory to that statement.

"You know what? Fine! But if you get knocked down one more time I'm throwing in the towel!"

"It won't touch the ground," Blaine replied just as the bell rang again. Two more rounds. He would give himself until the end of round nine to knock out Wyatt, and if he didn't manage to do that he knew he was done for. This was lasting too long.

Blaine put one of his hands up in front of his face while the other one stayed down by his side. He circled Wyatt, looking for an opening. Wyatt swung a fist out and punched Blaine in the chest, making him stagger backwards. Blaine kept his distance for the rest of the round as he couldn't find an opening. Wyatt managed to get a few more hits on Blaine before the end of round eight.

Blaine went back to his corner where Cooper was waiting for him. "It's over this round."

"What?" Cooper asked.

"The fight's not going past this round," Blaine panted.

"How do you know?"

"Just watch."

Blaine sat silently until the break was over, not answering any of Cooper's incessant questions. He knew what he would do, and he wouldn't let Wyatt get him. Blaine was bleeding all over the place and his arm hurt like a bitch, but none of that mattered. He would show that he worth something, that he could win. Those thoughts were the only things that got him through these fights, and he hoped they wouldn't fail him now.

The bell rang and Blaine went back into the ring. He circled Wyatt and watched his every move closely, then backed up to the far side of the ring after a few seconds, purposefully putting himself in one of the corners. He heard Cooper shouting at him to get back in the middle of the ring, but he knew what he was doing.

Wyatt charged at Blaine, just as anticipated. The massive boy took long, heavy steps, fists raised and eyes as cold as stone as he advanced, ready to strike. Cooper was yelling endless profanities at Blaine now, screaming at him for being 'exceedingly stupid' and threatening to throw in the towel. Blaine did his best to ignore his brother, and tried to focus all his attention on Wyatt. It was easier said than done considering his vision was starting to get blurry.

Blaine waited until Wyatt got right in front of him, and then swung his fist out and punched the other boy in the side of the head with all the force he could muster. Wyatt fell to the ground unconscious, and Blaine crookedly smirked in victory as he stepped around him. He may or may not have _accidentally _kicked him in the head in the process of doing so. The crowd was in complete chaos, their cheers creating a sort of high for him.

He won.

* * *

"You know the story, right?" Cooper asked Blaine as he drove them to the hospital after the match, breaking the speed limit and about a dozen traffic laws along the way.

"Yes, Cooper," Blaine replied, his words coming out slow.

Blaine was seriously injured. He was bleeding all over the place and his arm was broken. He had also complained about his stomach hurting quite a lot, and Cooper feared that he may have some internal bleeding. Cooper had rushed Blaine back to their prep room after the match and helped him change into a regular outfit since Blaine had trouble dressing himself with one arm. The story once they got to the hospital was that Blaine was speeding on his motorcycle without wearing a helmet and crashed. It might raise some questions since they used that story before, but it was better than telling them what really happened.

"Okay, little bro, we're here," Cooper said after another thirty minutes of driving in which he made sure Blaine stayed awake. The task was easier said than done.

Cooper helped Blaine out of the car and put Blaine's good arm around his shoulder for support as they walked to the door of the ER. Blaine kept stumbling and tripping along the way, and Cooper felt all the more worse.

"Oh my God!" one of the nurses screeched as she saw Blaine and Cooper walk through the door. "What happened?"

"Bad motorcycle accident, and he wasn't wearing a helmet," Cooper answered her, watching as another nurse came around the corner with a stretcher to put Blaine on.

Blaine winced as he was laid down on the stretcher, his injuries stinging, throbbing, and burning. He heard multiple voices yelling orders about what to do with him, and his head only hurt more. Any little movement sent a jolt of pain through him, and even breathing hurt. He felt the stretcher begin to move after a minute and wondered what doctors would do to him. Just how badly was he injured? Would he need surgery?

He opened his eyes after a while and looked at the numbers and letters on the walls as they passed by him. However, an approaching one caught his attention; it was the hallway Kurt's hospital room was located in. Kurt. He had seriously fucked up with Kurt.

Through the haze his mind seemed to be in, he somehow knew that he had to make things right with Kurt. He could have died at the fight tonight, and he still might if the amount of pain he was in and how much blood he had already lost was any indication. Kurt was kind, caring and innocent, and he could be just what Blaine needed. No, he _was _what Blaine needed. Blaine would give up the meaningless hook-ups with guys he barely knew if it meant he could be with Kurt. He may not know how to be in an actual relationship, but he would try.

And the timing was perfect. The doctors wheeled Blaine further down the hall, and once he got to the turnoff where Kurt's room was Blaine pulled together all the strength he had had in his body and jumped off the stretcher. He heard the doctors, nurses and Cooper yell at him to lay back down and ask him what he was doing, but he paid them no attention as he did his best to run down the hallway and try not to get caught by someone before he reached his destination.

Blaine tripped and fell right before he got to Kurt's door, and when he couldn't get back up he crawled the rest of the way as he heard a doctor getting closer to him. The door was cracked open a few inches, so Blaine pushed it open the rest of the way and crawled through. "Kurt!"

Kurt was sitting in his hospital bed watching TV, and looked toward the door when he heard a scratchy voice call out his name. Words couldn't describe how surprised he was to see Blaine, especially in the condition he was in. Blaine's face was bloody, he could see bruises splotched all over his arms and could only guess there were more beneath his t-shirt, one of his arms was clutched to his chest, and from what he could see he had left a trail of blood on the hall floor from where he dragged himself across it. "Blaine! What the hell happened?"

"I'll explain later, but I just needed to tell you that I'd love to be in a relationship with you if you'll still have me!"

Kurt was stunned. Flabbergasted was more like it. Blaine was willing to be in a relationship with him? And why would Blaine think that Kurt wouldn't want to be with him? That was the whole reason he got angry at him anyways. But before Kurt could answer him, Blaine was surrounded by a swarm of doctors and nurses and his door was slammed shut.

* * *

A/N

I'm sorry, I'll edit this in the morning. It's 3 a.m right now, and my eyes are playing tricks on me as I type, so I deeply apologize if some of this sucks, but I just wanted to get this chapter out tonight.

There is a reason this chapter is so long, and it has to do with a few things:

1.) I am sorely lacking making any progress on the novel I'm writing, and really need to focus on that.

2.) I have another fic on here I need to edit and update since I haven't updated it in over a month!

3.) I got four beta requests in the last few days only and I'll be busy with those.

4.) I've been going through some really stressful things in my real life lately, and I've been getting some intense chest pains as a result which I can only guess can't mean anything good. I know it's not acid reflex or heartburn because I took medication for that and it did nothing, so I might go to the hospital soon if they don't stop.

With those combined things I probably won't update for about a week and a half/two weeks. I'm sorry! I'll get another chapter out as soon as I can though!

A special thank you to my new followers/favoriters/reviewers: xXCrazyandTwistedXx, ANIKAORI, curlybaby, enmarkme, Larissa90, sonyericgirl, Valkyrie SilverRose, magicalunicorn337, Mari. Hale, DyingDickenson, .Fairy, Lolasatsuma, petit-scarabee, saku-ann, PiFerreira, hermim, and YoslinLovesTwilight!

Thanks for all the feedback, it means a lot to me!

See you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	10. Chapter 10

Four hours, ten minutes, twenty-three seconds, seventeen nervous glances to his cell phone, six unsuccessful calls to the hospital staff and a shout for _someone _ to give him answers later, Kurt breathed a huge sigh and let his head fall back down against his pillow. He didn't want to give up, but it was evident nobody was going to tell him what was wrong with Blaine tonight. The knowledge of that frustrated him beyond belief, but what else could he do? The nurses in charge of this hallway already looked ready to sedate Kurt if he tried anything else to pry information from someone, not something he wanted at the moment.

All Kurt wanted was answers, or at the very least to be told Blaine was okay and still alive. Was that so hard?

Apparently it was. And illegal, according to a bitter hospital staff member.

But despite the fact that it was impossible given his earlier state, Kurt still hoped Blaine would walk into his room with a smile on his face and assure him all was fine. It was dangerous to think like that considering Blaine could be dead already, but that hope was all Kurt had to hold onto.

Kurt bit his bottom lip, a nervous habit of his, and tried to piece together everything he knew was true. Blaine was supposed to have a boxing match that night; he was a talented boxer, better than most his age; something had gone terribly wrong and as a result Blaine was severely injured; and Blaine wanted to be with Kurt, going as far as to burst into his room while he was bleeding all over the place and declare it before being taken away by doctors. It wasn't much to go on at all, and Kurt wasn't sure what types of injuries he may have had because he'd only seen Blaine all of five seconds.

What was really eating at Kurt and slowly tearing him apart though, was that his last conversation with Blaine ended on a bad note. A _really _bad note. He was confused about the whole thing and wasn't certain he was even right. But what if that would be the last time he ever talked to Blaine? Now Kurt was seriously beginning to regret not attempting to contact Blaine throughout the week when he had plenty of chances to.

Kurt figured that now would be the time for a sappy quote about how you take time for granted and regret not doing things until it was too late or something of the likes.

Kurt's eyes remained practically glued to the clock on the wall opposite him for the next hour, and he didn't dare blink. Blaine never came. Kurt finally accepted that he wasn't going to see Blaine that night and tried to find something on TV to distract himself with, but he only ended up flipping over and over through the basic cable channels in disinterest. His attempts to stop himself from worrying were so futile it was pathetic.

It would be a long night filled with unanswered questions and wishful thinking.

* * *

Cooper was leaned forwards in his chair at Blaine's bedside with his head in his hands, shielding his red eyes and tear stained face from the otherwise empty room and echoing silence. He knew there was no need to do so since he was the only person awake in the room, but his damn dignity got in the way. He'd been in the exact same position for the past hour after Blaine was situated in the room, and he had no intentions of leaving until his brother woke up... whenever that may be.

The words the doctor told him swirled around inside of Cooper's head without settling. He was in denial. He was numb, and grew more so with each passing second. Blaine had internal bleeding, brain swelling, a broken arm, needed a blood transfusion and was put into a medically induced coma.

Cooper felt like he was to blame for what happened to his little brother. If he hadn't gone and beaten up those two guys in the alley last week Blaine wouldn't be in this position right now. He should have been the one to have a sudden, rigged fight and be laying in a hospital bed, hooked up to at least half a dozen machines. But Blaine had to pay for something that was Cooper's fault, and for that Cooper would never forgive himself.

He looked up and chanced a glance at Blaine then and grimaced, yet forced himself not to turn away. Blaine looked, well, dead. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest and the steady beep of some machine he was connected to, Cooper would have swore Blaine was dead. The doctors said he would wake up in a few days if all went according to plan though, but that was the only good news they could offer as of now.

However, Blaine being in a coma and very injured wasn't the only problem at the moment, there was also the outcome of the fight to think about. Blaine won. There would be repercussions for that, because he was meant to lose. Terri's son, _Riley_, probably isn't in the best of moods right now, and there would be no telling what he would do next or when he would do it. There was no denying that a battle had begun and was far from being over.

Thirty more minutes went by, and the silence of the room was starting to aggravate Cooper. The clock on the wall was ticking, but he didn't feel like counting that as anything short of something annoying as hell he was about to put an end to. Cooper wasn't used to staying quiet for so long; he was always talking or having somebody talk to him. But he heard something once about people in comas being able to hear people talk to them, so the same should apply to Blaine then, right? He could get Blaine to wake up.

Cooper rose from his seat and stood over Blaine, watching him curiously and closely for any signs of movement. There were none. He scowled and shook Blaine's shoulder lightly, hoping to elicit some kind of response from the act. "Blaine, you're going to be fine. Just wake up."

No response.

He frowned deeper and shook Blaine's shoulder with a little more force this time. He wasn't sure if it would do anything to help, but Cooper figured there couldn't be any harm in trying. "You're a fighter, I know you can fight through the drugs the doctors gave you. You need to wake up so I can apologize for this and you can see just how fucking sorry I am."

Still nothing.

Why wasn't Blaine showing any signs he could hear Cooper? Wasn't he supposed to move a hand or crease his eyebrows in acknowledgment or something? This was all wrong. "Dammit Blaine, wake the hell up!" Cooper shouted. "This is all a joke, you're just sleeping! Come on, it's time to wake up!"

Nothing.

Suddenly, reality decided to make its presence known to him and basically slap Cooper in the face, the intensity of it washing over him cutting him out of his state. He was acting crazy. Blaine wasn't going to wake up anytime soon no matter what Cooper said or him, no matter how much he begged and pleaded. He would have to break out of the coma in his own time.

Cooper grunted in frustration and dropped back into his chair. The small potted plant sitting on the table next to him caught his eye, and, without even giving his actions a second thought, he snatched it and flung the plant at the clock on the wall, watching as both objects shattered and soil flew everywhere. He thought throwing the plant would give him some brief satisfaction, but instead it only made him feel more numb.

It would be a long night, and now he had to explain the mess to what was most likely a nurse hurrying down the hall towards the room to see what the noise was.

* * *

The first thing Blaine was aware of when he woke up was splitting pain _everywhere_, however, it was far more prominent in his head, left arm and stomach. The second thing that registered to him was the overpowering scent of some type of antiseptic in the air that burned his nose, and then he noticed a steady beep droning somewhere to the right of him. These weren't his normal surroundings, and the last time he could remember being in a position like this was when he came to in the hospital last year...

Oh _fuck, _he was in the hospital.

But why?

Blurry, distorted and incomplete flashes of a boxing match flooded his mind suddenly, and then everything made sense to him. He'd had the living hell beat out of him and was injured. But to what extent? Did he even win the fight?

And then thoughts of Kurt invaded him and his eyes snapped open with memories of barging into his hospital room, bleeding all over the floor, and the shocked and terror filled look Kurt gave him once he caught sight of him. It was the last thing he could remember, but it was also the clearest.

"Oh, good! He's awake!" a doctor exclaimed from Blaine's side after seeing his eyes shoot open.

The voice startled Blaine, because he didn't notice anybody else in the room. He slowly rotated his head to the side and saw a doctor, two nurses and Cooper. He tried to sit up, but his movements were sluggish and a sudden head rush caused him to fall back down against his pillows. Grunting at the dizzy feeling, Blaine meant to put his hands on his head, but his arms felt heavy and fell, and what he assumed was a cast on his left arm whacked him in the face, doubling his pain.

"Don't get up just yet Mr. Anderson, it would be best for you to just relax right now."

Blaine moved his hands from his face and glanced towards the doctor who spoke, giving a short nod of his head in acknowledgement of her statement.

"Now, I'm just going to ask a few questions and I want you to try and answer them as best you can. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes," Blaine replied this time, grimacing at the hoarse sound of his voice; it sounded like he hadn't spoken in a week.

"What's your full name?"

Blaine quirked an eyebrow at the mundane question, but answered without any hesitation. "Blaine Devon Anderson."

"Who is this?" the doctor asked as she pointed to Cooper.

"My brother, Cooper."

"Good. Now how old are you, Blaine?"

"Seventeen years old," Blaine answered. The questions about basic information were odd and he felt they were unnecessary. Why would they need to ask them? Unless they lost his medical records or something, which was also unlikely since they were stored on computers and possibly had backup files. This was confusing, and thinking hard made his head hurt.

"Where do you go to school?"

"McKinley High."

"Okay. Now, do you remember anything about the accident?"

Accident? Blaine thought he and Cooper agreed a long time ago to never tell medical personal about the boxing matches for the trouble that would arise if they ever should. But then Blaine remembered there was a cover story and struggled to remember what it was, and after being silent for a few seconds too long, the doctor began writing notes on a clipboard which couldn't mean anything good. "I was riding my bike and crashed. I wasn't wearing a helmet either. I remember calling my brother, but that's it until I got in the car."

The doctor looked at Blaine for a long moment before speaking. "Alright, you don't seem to have any permanent brain damage, but we'll have to run some tests to ensure that's really the case. You did wake up a little later than planned, after all."

_Brain damage? Woke up later than planned? _Blaine's eyes widened, and he turned his attention to a hesitant Cooper. "What happened to me? How long was I out for?"

"Five days," Cooper replied, not making any eye contact with Blaine. "You had internal bleeding, broke an arm, had to get a blood transfusion, had brain swelling, and was put into a medically induced coma.

"What?" Blaine choked out.

"Please, Mr. Anderson, don't work yourself up. We need you to be stable for testing."

"Okay," was all Blaine could manage to say after a minute, and he said it unconsciously. All he knew for sure was that he was injured pretty badly and Cooper was acting strange with the way he was staring at the wall with his hands in his pockets while whistling to some random tune. It was clear that things were far from okay though.

* * *

It was exactly one week after Blaine came bursting through the door to Kurt's hospital room all bloodied and beaten that Kurt received a text message from him late in the morning. The message was a room number, which Kurt assumed was where Blaine was located in the hospital. He hadn't heard anything about Blaine yet, but he had damn well tried to get information from most of the hospital staff. Stupid privacy and no-disclosure policies. One of the nurses actually did sedate him the last time he inquired about Blaine. But now Blaine had given him a way to see him, and Kurt was going to take full advantage of that opportunity.

Kurt sat up in bed and snatched the new crutches the doctor had given him from where they were leaning against the wall near him, and carefully stood. He'd had the crutches for the past three days, and had been taking daily walks around the hospital with them. He hated the damn things with a passion, but unless he wanted to hop four hallways down on one leg he was stuck using them.

Once Kurt had the crutches correctly positioned, he began his agonizingly slow journey down the hallway. The things couldn't move any faster than half a mile per hour, and a turtle could probably pass him up at the speed he was moving at. He wanted to see Blaine already, he didn't want to waste anymore time than absolutely necessary. Kurt's bitterness toward walking slowly was quickly quelled however, when after he tried to speed up he tripped and found himself hanging precariously halfway over the railing to a very long staircase.

Maybe slow and steady really does win the race, after all.

Ten minutes, two breaks to catch his breath and one more fall that resulted in him nearly knocking a water cooler over later, Kurt arrived at the entrance to Blaine's hospital room. From what he could tell it was quiet inside, and Kurt gently pushed the door open after taking a deep breath and before he could talk himself out of it. Unimaginable relief flooded through him when he saw that Blaine appeared to be in decent condition, besides the cast on one of his arms. A smile took over his lips when Blaine snapped his head towards Kurt and blinked rapidly as his own hesitant smile formed.

"Hi."

"Hi."

* * *

A/N:

End of chapter 10!

Hopefully you guys liked it, and I'm sorry it was so short, but this was just a filler chapter until the next one. The next chapter will be longer, and there will be some time skipping because I'm done with Kurt and Blaine being in the hospital and want to get back to their training. So look forward to that!

I was just wondering how you guys have been finding my story still, because I haven't updated in like over two weeks, and I recently just got a bunch of new follows, favorites, and reviews. I'm super grateful for them and all, but hasn't this story been in the back of the Klaine fics for a while now? How are you finding it? Just curious, but by all means keep on blowing up my email with notifications, they make my day :)

A special thank you to my new followers/favoriters/reviewers: QueenieBeez12, mariamaria2u, harrypotterfan2011, justmellon, , mslilybelle, dadiva18, gcrodrig, Kissme123, demi21klaine, whateverworks212, slowest, fashionpoetry, ridiculous thoughts, ksgleeov12, starkidgleek1316, Lasaraleen, TRIC4R, Artist For Love, BColfer12, and SuperSamNatural!

Ah, all the feedback is amazing! I actually never thought anyone would read this story, let alone like it, so seeing all of you giving me feedback is beyond awesome!

I'll probably have the next chapter within the next couple of days, so it will be up very soon!

Thanks again for all the feedback!

I'll see you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: You know what? I still don't own Glee. If I did, the show would mainly be centered around Klaine and they wouldn't have broken up, Tina never would have tried to get with Blaine, Mercedes would have had more solo's, Finn would have been slapped in Season 2 for insulting Kurt, and Rachel would have been hit by a bus by now.**

Today was the day Kurt and Blaine returned to school after being in the hospital for countless days. Both boys had been released over the weekend, and were cleared to attend school on Monday. They arrived at McKinley High earlier than usual, because Kurt would need extra time to get from the parking lot to his first class, and Blaine had insisted on being early with him.

"So I only have French with you today, but tomorrow I have you in Physics and we have the same last period off. Do you want to go to the library and study then? We have finals in a few weeks and a ton of studying to do if we want to pass," Kurt said as he struggled with his crutches.

"Sure," Blaine replied simply. He'd been hoping to have Kurt in more classes than they actually had, but it seemed as if nothing in this damned school could go right for him.

"Are you tired?" Kurt asked when Blaine yawned loudly and shook his head like he made to clear it.

"Yeah. I'm normally a morning person, but when there's school I turn into a zombie."

Kurt chuckled. "Drink coffee, it works like a miracle."

"I usually do, but I didn't have any time for it this morning," Blaine said, yawning again.

"I told you that you didn't have to come to my house early and drive us both to school."

"You can't drive right with one of your legs in a cast, and I said it's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," Blaine replied just as the bell rang and they stopped outside of Kurt's first period classroom. "This is where I leave you, try not to trip over anything on your way to your desk," he joked.

"Try not to get suspended or get a detention," Kurt teased back playfully.

In a perfect world where gay couples were treated just as equally as straight couples were, Kurt would have leaned forward and gave Blaine a goodbye kiss on the lips and hugged him tightly before entering his classroom, not having to worry about any repercussions from the act. But that perfect world didn't exist, so Kurt offered Blaine a small smile and a wave before turning into his classroom, feeling a little bit empty inside while Blaine gazed after him longingly for a few moments until he turned away to go to his own class.

* * *

"Do you even get this damn language? I don't have a clue in hell as to what this bitch is saying," Blaine whispered to Kurt fifteen minutes into their French class where the two had managed to snag seats next to each other.

"Yes, I speak it fluently," Kurt replied also in a whisper.

Blaine raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Really? Say something."

Kurt thought for a moment about what he would say. Blaine wouldn't know what he said since he didn't know the language, so why not be bold? He looked over Blaine once, quickly, and found the perfect thing to say to him. His boyfriend would be none the wiser. "Vous avez l'air très chaud dans ces jeans," Kurt said just loud enough for Blaine to hear, the words and accent flowing smoothly off his tongue.

"So you actually can speak the language. Say something else, it's entertaining and I'm bored."

"Mr. Anderson," the teacher, Ms. Martin, snapped from the front of the room. "Since you're so keen to speak in class, why don't you recite something in French that you know."

Blaine shrugged and looked to the teacher. "Fine with me," he said, then repeated what Kurt had just told him, giving himself a mental pat on the back when he said the sentence near perfectly.

Kurt groaned and smacked a palm to his forehead when Ms. Martin dropped the whiteboard marker she was holding in shock. The students who knew French well snapped their heads towards Blaine in surprise at his statement, and those who didn't know what he said looked on in confusion.

"What did I just say?" Blaine asked Kurt as he nudged him with his elbow.

Kurt blushed deeply before answering. "You told her she looks really hot in the jeans she's wearing," he replied in a rush.

Blaine snorted in laughter. "Oh shit. Uh, how do I say that I meant that in a completely non-predator and platonic way because I'm gay?"

"No, don't say that!"

"Why not?"

"Because this is middle-of-nowhere _Ohio_. I'm sure she has a less than amiable outlook on gays," Kurt whisper shouted.

"I'll just Google Translate it then if you don't want to tell me," Blaine said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the desired app.

If Kurt and Blaine didn't have the attention of everyone in the room before they sure had it now. Everyone stared openly at Blaine, wondering just where the boy had the courage and audacity to use his cell phone openly in front of the teacher. Ms. Martin had her hands on her hips and glared at Blaine, but he didn't notice as he typed furiously on his phone.

"Aha! Found it," Blaine exclaimed and looked back to Ms. Martin. "Ne soyez pas offensé, je vous jure que je voulais dire que dans un environnement complètement non-prédateur et manière platonique. Je suis gay, donc je ne vais pas vous de vérifier," he spoke confidently, grinning.

Kurt slammed his head against his desk now and kept it there after hearing what Blaine said. His boyfriend was truly an idiot. But he was his idiot. Come on though, telling the teacher that he meant what he said in a 'completely non-predator and platonic way' and not to be offended and that he's gay so he wasn't checking her out. He should have just told Blaine that the weather was nice today in the first place, that way they could have avoided the whole mess.

"You should keep your sexual preferences and crude comments to yourself, Mr. Anderson. I'll leave you with a warning, but if you disrupt my class one more time it'll be detention," Ms. Martin said, acid lacing her voice.

Jaws dropped around the room as the students processed the exchange between Blaine and their teacher. Minds worked furiously as they put together the snippets of information, coming to a rather shocking conclusion as they took in Kurt and Blaine sitting quite closely next to each other and the declaration of Blaine being gay.

"Oh damn! Get it, Hummel!" Santana shouted from across the room, smiling maliciously.

Kurt picked his head up and slammed it back down on the hard wood of the desk. Dammit, he'd forgotten she was in this class. This couldn't get any worse.

"He'll let you know what he got after our date on Saturday," Blaine answered cheekily.

Kurt was wrong, this could get worse.

* * *

"Oh come on, Kurt, it wasn't that bad," Blaine said as he and Kurt walked to the cafeteria together at lunch. "Everyone already knew you were gay, and I've never been one to hide who I am. I don't see what the big deal is."

Kurt had been pouting and giving Blaine the silent treatment for the past hour, mulling over the incident in French class. Everybody in the school will have known that he and Blaine were dating now, because that kind of gossip was bound to spread like wildfire. "The football team is going to torture us mercilessly now," Kurt said as he stepped into the lunch-line and picked up a salad and bottle of water.

"I knocked Karofsky out once, I'll do it again," Blaine said easily as he grabbed a sandwich, bag of chips and a soda.

"Not with one arm."

"That's how I won my boxing match."

Kurt finally looked toward Blaine out of the corner of his eye after they paid for their food. "You never did tell me about that fight by the way, you only told me your injuries resulting from it."

Blaine cringed slightly and followed Kurt to whatever table he was heading to. "You really don't want to know the details, trust me. It was a dirty fight, that's all I'm telling you."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Fine, but what was that about Saturday? I don't recall you ever saying something about it to me."

"That's when we're going on our first date."

"Where?"

"Can't tell you, it's a surprise," Blaine replied and winked at Kurt.

"You've been full of surprises since I've met you," Kurt said, smiling despite himself.

"I have to keep you interested somehow. Anyways, where are we going right now?"

"Glee Club table."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not in your little Glee Club."

"It's also known as the reject table, so you can take your pick for which one you want to call it, but that's where we're going."

"Well aren't you taking control?"

"I just know what I want," Kurt said as he sat down at his usual seat near the end of his table and Blaine slid into the one next to him.

Everyone at the table fell silent immediately and looked to Kurt, then Blaine then back to Kurt. It took less than three seconds before the inevitable flurry of questions and comments from everybody in Glee Club started.

"Oh my God, Kurt! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Bro, did you tell Burt about this?"

"There's another unicorn? Can he fly?"

"Boo, you have _got _to spill all the details_ now_."

"Ten bucks says Kurt's got a hickey under his scarf!"

"Santana!" Kurt snapped, full on bitch-glaring at her. "The scarf is merely a fashion statement, not a cover-up!"

"Not yet," Blaine chimed in, speaking for the first time since he sat down.

Kurt smacked Blaine lightly across the chest as he blushed a dozen shades of red.

"Well it's true," Blaine continued unabashedly as he glanced around the table. His eyes settled on Puck, and cocked his head to the side in thought. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Puck's eyes widened and he swallowed thickly. "I don't know." He lied, he knew exactly where Blaine knew him from, but the other boy scared the living daylights out of him and he didn't want to admit it.

Blaine continued to think, knowing that he saw this guy somewhere before, he just couldn't remember where. "You look really familiar, bu-"

"Hey, look. It's the fairy princess couple," Karofsky taunted as he walked up to the Glee table with half the football team behind him. "How disgusting."

Kurt closed his eyes tightly as he shuttered, unable to stop his body from shaking. He hadn't seen Karofsky since he'd beaten the living hell out of him weeks ago, and knowing that he was right behind him right now terrified Kurt.

Everyone at the table instantly jumped to Kurt's defense, knowing that it was Karofsky who put him in the hospital. Nobody would let him harm Kurt again if they could prevent it.

"Why don't you go back to your own table?" Finn asked, glaring daggers at Karofsky.

"Or back to hell where you came from," Quinn added.

"Okay,"Blaine sighed as he stood up. "I really don't want to waste the energy, but I will punch the fuck out of you again if I have to. _Go away_."

The cafeteria went quiet as everyone listened to the exchange between Blaine and Karofsky, most sitting on the edges of their seats in anticipation to see what would happen next.

"You caught me off guard, I could beat you in a fight any day."

Blaine scoffed and shook his head. "Really now?"

"Yeah."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Listen here, dumbass, you don't know who you're dealing with. I don't know if you're pissed off because you feel threatened by me here, or the fact that your jacket looks like it got shrunk in the dryer, but you better cut the act. If you think you're tough shit then you're wrong. You don't scare me, you actually amuse me with how high and mighty you think you are. It's time for you to get off your high horse, because if you don't then I'll break it's legs myself and watch as you fall and realize that you're actually nothing. I suggest that you pull out that giant stick that's lodged up your ass and see sense for once in your life that you need to back the fuck off. I don't mind going back to jail if it comes to it, so make your choice."

* * *

"So what happened after you said that?" Cooper laughed as Blaine told him the story of the confrontation he had earlier that day as they sat in their living room and ate pizza for dinner.

Blaine was laughing so hard he was crying and his sides were hurting. "He got so confused by everything I said that he messed up his reply. He said, 'I don't want to take the horses stick out of my ass'!"

Cooper nearly choked on the bite of pizza he was chewing. "He said _what_?"

"I know, but then some random kid told him that he'd break the horses legs himself if he was riding it like that! I've never seen anyone turn that pale so fast before! He just ran out of the building once he realized what he said, and apparently he left school for the rest of the day."

It took Cooper a few minutes before he could breathe regularly again and he could reply to Blaine. "That kid's going to be the laughingstock of the whole school. Nice job, little bro."

"Thanks, oh, and by the way I'm not going to be here on Saturday, so you're on your own for dinner," Blaine said casually as he stretched out on the couch.

"You have a hot date or something?" Cooper joked.

"Yeah, with Kurt."

Cooper really did choke on his pizza this time. "You asked him out?"

"That's what I just said."

"Maybe that concussion was just what you needed, it seems like it put some brain cells back in you."

Blaine threw the remote control to the TV at Cooper, who caught it deftly.

"Astounding catlike reflexes, Blaine, astounding catlike reflexes."

* * *

"Are you taking me to the woods to bury me alive or something? We've been driving on this deserted road for half an hour," Kurt said as he stared out the passenger side window of his Navigator. It was the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, and he was getting impatient waiting to see where they were going.

"No, I would have shoved you in the trunk if that was the case," Blaine replied. "We're almost there, only around five minutes left."

"Can't you tell me what we're doing?"

"You're about to find out, quit whining," Blaine laughed. "Honestly, you're worse than my brother."

"That's always a nice way to compliment your date."

"I try to be a gentleman whenever I can."

"My sarcasm and wit appears to have rubbed off on you," Kurt commented dryly.

"No, I've always been like this, you just bring it out in me."

They were silent for a few more minutes as Blaine continued to drive. Kurt watched as the trees and other foliage began to clear out, and the road turned into a dirt parking lot. Blaine parked the car in the middle of the lot and got out to open Kurt's door for him. Kurt looked around once he got out of the car and was situated with his crutches, and frowned at what lay before him; a large dead grass field.

"Blaine, where the hell are we?" Kurt asked, beyond confused when he saw that Blaine was nearly bursting with excitement.

"An old, abandoned park."

Blaine really was going to bury him alive. "Why?"

"So we have enough room."

"Room for _what_?" Kurt cried in frustration. None of this was making sense to him, and this was definitely not a good place to have a first date. What were they even going to do?

"Go walk to the middle of the field and wait for me."

Blaine wasn't going to bury him alive, he was going to shoot him then bury him.

"Nothings bad is going to happen, I promise," Blaine assured at Kurt's indecisive expression.

One look into Blaine's eyes was all it took for Kurt to give in. Why did he even think Blaine would kill him in the first place?

Kurt nodded his head and accepted a quick kiss from Blaine, then made his way to the middle of the field. It took a while, considering he could only move so fast, but he did get there eventually. As he was about to turn around, Kurt heard something that sounded like paws running on grass, and heard a small yet strong bark come from behind him. He whipped around to see a young Yorkshire Terrier racing towards him and stop once it reached his feet. What the hell?

Kurt bent down as best he could to inspect the dog, wondering just where the thing came from. It was mainly a dark chocolate brown color, with a black oval shaped patch of fur on its back and one black ear. The dog had to be just a few months old, because it was small even for the type of breed it was. Kurt grabbed the collar it was wearing and looked at the metal circle hanging off of it with the owner's contact information, and was shocked to see his cell phone number engraved onto it. What the...

"Surprise," Blaine said from in front of him.

Kurt snapped his head up to see his boyfriend standing there with a picnic basket in his right hand, and a blanket draped over his left arm. "What is this?"

"Well, you said you always wanted a Yorkie, so I decided to get you one and thought we could have a picnic and play with it."

Kurt looked back down to the puppy and then again to Blaine. "Are you serious?" Kurt asked, and at Blaine's nod he launched himself at Blaine, his crutches falling haphazardly to the ground. Kurt stumbled a bit and more fell into Blaine than hugged him, but Blaine caught him and held him close all the same. "Thank you. This is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me."

"You're welcome," Blaine replied as he squeezed Kurt's waist. "So what do you want to name him?"

"Hazel," Kurt said right away as he left Blaine's embrace and sat down on the grass in front of his new dog.

"You like the color?" Blaine questioned as he laid the blanket down and sat on half of it, motioning for Kurt to scoot off the grass and next to him.

"I'm very fond of it," Kurt replied with a wink.

"Good to know. Anyways, I packed fresh fruit and sandwiches, along with iced tea. All of its store bought, so don't worry, it won't kill us like it would if I made any of it."

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you burn anything you touch."

"Or set it on fire," Blaine said as he handed Kurt a bottle of tea.

"I would love to see what would happen if you ever went on a cooking show."

"The show would end up on Comedy Central instead of Food Network."

"I'd tune in for it either way," Kurt whispered as he turned his head toward Blaine and leaned in.

Blaine easily picked up on what Kurt was doing and leaned his head towards Kurt's, but got the surprise of his life when Hazel jumped up on his lap and began licking his lips. "Eurrghh! Dammit, that was gross!" he yelled after he got the dog off of him.

Kurt fell backwards onto the blanket and erupted into a fit of giggles. "That was h-h-hilarious! You should have seen your f-face! Ha!"

Blaine grimaced and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, not finding the situation mildly amusing. "That wasn't funny!"

"Oh, yes, it was! You looked horrified!"

"Now do I get my real kiss?"

"Oh no, you have dog breath now. You'll have no wait until you brush your teeth," Kurt said seriously, although a small smile tugged at his lips.

"But that'll be hours!" Blaine whined and stuck his bottom lip out.

It was tempting, but Kurt managed to resist Blaine. "Nope, sorry."

Blaine narrowed his eyes slightly. "You're going to deny me a kiss with my boyfriend on our first date?"

"After the dog you just got me licked your lips? Yes."

"Hey, Kurt?"

"Yeah?" Kurt asked innocently, but was then caught off guard when Blaine reached around the back of his neck and pulled his lips to Blaine's, sealing them in a kiss.

"Now you have dog breath, too," Blaine said when he pulled away after a minute, grinning victoriously.

The rest of the picnic was spent with Kurt and Blaine talking about any and everything that came to mind as they ate their food, and then they played a game of fetch with Hazel with a stick Blaine found on the ground. The poor thing got tired out pretty quickly since it was so young, and it eventually fell asleep curled up on Kurt's lap. After that the two started a game of 'Would You Rather', and it was going smoothly until ten minutes into the game when Kurt thought of something.

"Wait a minute!" Kurt exclaimed abruptly and turned to Blaine.

"What?"

"My dad never let me have a dog, how I am going to explain this to him?"

"Oh, I already cleared it with your dad and step-mom when I was waiting for you to get ready Wednesday morning. They said that it was a good idea and for us to have fun on our date."

Kurt visibly paled at Blaine's statement and his eyes bulged.

"What's wrong?" Blaine asked hesitantly.

"I never told my dad or Carole we were dating."

* * *

A/N:

End of chapter 11!

So you got Kurt and Blaine's first date! Hopefully it was adorable enough for you.

A special thank you to my new followers/favoriters/reviewers: sharion69, Mimi77, snowlivvys, klainhasubarashi, hamptonschick, Meechely, and Earthangel1414!

Thank you for all the feedback this story is getting! Seeing all the notifications in my email gives me inspiration to write! I'm steadily getting closer to 200 story followers! Eeep! Maybe this chapter will get me there? I'll find out soon!

I'll see you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I just made the plot for this story, so please don't sue me!**

Kurt squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head against the passenger seat of the car, letting out a small groan of frustration as Blaine pulled up into his driveway and parked the Navigator. This was bad. His dad knew he was dating Blaine, and he wasn't the one to tell him. Oh, he planned on telling Burt, just not for while, possibly in a few weeks after he would have had enough time to write a speech because there was no way he could explain anything without serious preparation. _Oh, hey, dad. You know the guy who essentially saved my life but beats the crap out of people for a living and is training me how to do the same? Yeah, the one who you described as looking 'a little rough around the edges' and drives that dangerous looking motorcycle. Well, I'm dating him now. But don't worry, he's really a great, sweet guy if you get to know him past his criminal record. _Kurt had a feeling saying that wouldn't turn over so well, and that was exactly why he wanted time to plan something better to say.

Hazel, who was sitting in Kurt's lap, licked Kurt's hand and wagged his tail in mindless excitement, just happy to be around people. Kurt cracked one eye open and peered down at the puppy, not able to stop the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth at how cute the dog looked. Its big, innocent eyes and floppy ears were too much to resist. He moved one hand over to pet Hazel, earning an appreciative little bark in return. It had only been a few hours and he was already quite fond of his puppy. Maybe Hazel could help lessen the awkward conversation he knew would happen when he inevitably went inside his house.

Blaine watched Kurt and Hazel in amusement, glad that the puppy seemed to genuinely like Kurt. It would have been bad to have gotten him a dog that attacked him at every available moment. But it appeared that he had done something right for once and picked out a good-natured dog.

"Someone made a new friend," Blaine said, nudging Kurt's shoulder playfully.

Kurt glanced over at Blaine and flashed a small smile. "Yeah, he's adorable. Thank you."

Hazel barked at that, almost in agreement to what Kurt said. Both boys chuckled, but it soon turned into silence. Kurt turned to look out the window and saw his dad peeking through the living room curtains at him and Blaine, making a poor attempt to subtlety spying on them. Of course his dad would do that. Finn wasn't home but Carole was, so maybe she would help Kurt out and make sure he didn't get hounded too much by his dad; the woman was good at being reasonable in tough situations.

Kurt sighed and unbuckled his seat-belt, being mindful not to get Hazel twisted up in it in the process. "I should probably go inside now, I know my dad's waiting for me."

Blaine regretfully agreed and took off his seat-belt too and got out of the car, walking around to Kurt's side and opening up the door for him to get out. He made sure Kurt was steadied on his crutches and Hazel was standing in the driveway before shutting the door, and then turned to Kurt, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I'm sorry I told your dad and Carole about the date, I thought you would have told them by now."

"You didn't know and I didn't tell you, it's my fault really," Kurt said automatically, not wanting Blaine to blame himself for something that was his mistake. "And I had an amazing time on our first date, let's not ruin the day by getting too far into something I have to deal with myself."

Kurt was actually a little bit scared of what would happen when he went inside to face the music- he had never brought a guy home before who wasn't strictly just a friend, because hell, he'd never had a boyfriend before- but he wouldn't let Blaine know that. This was something he had to face with his dad, and he wouldn't drag Blaine into it.

"You sure?"

"Positive," Kurt said and went to lean down for a kiss, but turned the action into a hug at the last second when he heard the front door open and his dad call out to him.

"Kurt? Are you coming inside?"

Damn parent interference.

"Yeah, dad. I'm coming right now," Kurt replied, rolling his eyes as he pulled away from the hug.

"Is Blaine going to stay for a while?"

Blaine looked to Kurt questionably, but Kurt shook his head and fiercely whispered, "Do you want to be interrogated?"

"Um, no sir. I have to get home and pick up dinner for my brother and I. He'll throw a fit if I'm late bringing home food," Blaine lied smoothly, trusting Kurt's opinion on what to say.

Burt frowned at what Blaine said. "What about your parents? Wouldn't they be more concerned than your brother?"

"No sir," Blaine said bitterly with a short laugh as he looked to the ground. "They wouldn't be." He looked to Kurt and gave him a strained smile that he knew wasn't fooling anybody. "I should get going now, I'll talk to you later."

Kurt opened his mouth to say _something _to Blaine, because he could tell there was something majorly wrong with what he just said, but Blaine was already making his way to where his motorcycle was parked near the curb and then speeding off down the street once he got it started. That was... odd? He wasn't sure what to call it, but there was something big Blaine wasn't telling Kurt about his parents, and the thought that he might not trust Kurt and that's why he wouldn't tell him killed him inside a little bit.

"You two okay?" Burt asked after watching the the scene unfold in front of him, not quite sure when things turned bad. He had just asked about the kid's parents and didn't see what that question could do to make someone react like that.

Kurt swallowed thickly and nodded. "We're fine," he said. This was it. This would be the big blow up where his dad would get angry at him for not telling him about dating Blaine. Would he tell him that he couldn't see Blaine anymore? That was unlikely to happen though, because even if his dad did say that Kurt would sneak out if he had to, because there was no way he wouldn't see Blaine. He was in too deep.

"Let's get inside, I have something for you," Burt said gruffly, turning back into the house and leaving the door open for Kurt.

So his dad was going to wait until Kurt got inside to yell at him so that the neighbors wouldn't be able to hear them. Lovely.

"Come on, Hazel," Kurt said, making his way to the front door and being sure the dog was following him by his side and not running down the street or anything. He already had enough problems at the moment by the sound of things and didn't need to hobble after the puppy too.

Kurt followed his dad to where he walked into the kitchen, and got slightly nervous when he didn't see Carole anywhere. He could hear the faint noise of a TV on somewhere upstairs, and guessed that she was watching a show in her and his dad's bedroom. This really wasn't good now. Where was Finn when you needed him? He was always snooping around the house and would be sure to accidentally interrupt any conversion Kurt and his dad were about to have, and Kurt was willing to take any diversion he could get.

"Cute dog. Why don't you get him some water to drink, it looks thirsty," Burt said as he sat down in a chair at the kitchen table, pulling something out of his pocket as he was speaking.

Kurt nodded hesitantly and was careful when he reached up to a cupboard and rummaged around in it until he found a small, plastic bowl to use for Hazel. He filled it up a little more than half way with tap water, and was about to set it down on the floor next to the kitchen table when his dad practically shoved something in his face. Kurt dropped the bowl to the ground when he saw what his dad was holding out to him, not paying attention in the least to the water that splashed everywhere. Oh no. _No._

Burt cleared his throat and coughed. "I, uh, picked these out today from the free clinic."

Kurt was so embarrassed and mortified at the same time he didn't know if he turned the color of a tomato or a sheet of paper. His dad was holding out pamphlets about gay sex to him. This was worse than anything he could ever have imagined. He was _not _having the sex talk with his dad. "Please don't."

"I have to. You're dating that Blaine kid now, and I know what it's like to be a teenage boy. I want to make sure you're um... being safe."

This wasn't happening. His dad thought... oh no. Kurt couldn't form any coherent words, he just mouthed what he was trying to say while simultaneously sputtering. Even though he was on crutches, Kurt was fairly sure he had a good chance of outrunning his dad to his room to get out of this conversation, considering his dad had had a heart attack only a few months ago.

"This is going to suck for both of us, but it's going to be worse for me."

Oh, Kurt highly doubted that. There was no way that could be possible

"Have a seat, Kurt. It's time we had a talk," Burt grumbled, avoiding eye contact at all costs with his son.

Kurt more collapsed in his seat than sat in it, but that wasn't important. He was trying to figure out ways to stop this conversation from happening, but was drawing a blank because he couldn't think, his brain was frozen or something of the likes. It didn't help that Hazel was rolling around in the spilled water on the tile, causing more of a mess and getting over the legs of Kurt's jeans.

"It came to my attention on Wednesday that you and Blaine were going out, and I was waiting for you to tell me yourself, but when you didn't after a few days I realized that I would need to be the one to bring it up," Burt started, seemingly trying to remember words that he had previously prepared.

"Sorry?" Kurt squeaked out, finding particular interest in the table and patterns of the tablecloth.

"The most important thing to know though, Kurt, is that you matter."

And thus began the most awkward yet slightly- very slightly- heartwarming conversation Kurt ever had.

* * *

Blaine was laying on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, when his phone rang next to him. After he left Kurt's house abruptly he had gone home and locked himself in his room, glad that Cooper wasn't at the house yet when he got home because he would no doubt question why Blaine was in a bad mood. The truth was that Blaine couldn't stop the painful flow of memories from invading his mind after what Kurt's dad had said, and he was finding that it was harder to block them out with each passing day. He couldn't handle them and wasn't sure if he would ever be able to, but what Burt said brought a fresh wave of them that hit Blaine like a ton of bricks. He had needed to get away from Kurt before he saw what those memories did to Blaine.

Blaine looked at the caller-ID on his screen and saw that Kurt was calling, and immediately answered the call. He was fairly sure that he was ready to talk to Kurt as it had been about four hours since he last saw him, and he thought he was calmed down enough now. "Hello?"

_"Hi," _Kurt said timidly from the other line. _"Are you okay? You sort of left really fast earlier."_

"Oh, I'm fine," Blaine replied, hating how the lie came out so easily. "How did things with your dad go?" Divert the attention to Kurt, that would be better.

_"Please don't make me talk about it," _Kurt groaned.

"Was it that bad?"

_"Yes," _Kurt said right away. _"And I'm not going to repeat anything from the talk I had with him, I'm already scarred for life and am going to have nightmares tonight."_

"Damn, that bad? Sorry."

_"I told you it wasn't your fault already, but that's not what I called to tell you. I have a question for you."_

"Ask away," Blaine said. He'd endured the worst questions possible from Kurt previously to this one, and was certain that they couldn't get any worse. Kurt would most likely just ask him something school-related or about the training they could resume in a few weeks, as they talked about pretty much everything else on their date earlier.

_"So my friend Rachel just texted me asking if I was going to be able to compete in Nationals because they're about about to start figuring out a set list, and I obviously said that of course I'd be able to, and then she asked me, well more like demanded-"_

"Kurt?" Blaine asked, grinning a little bit at his boyfriend.

"_Yes?"_

"You're rambling."

_"Oh, um, sorry. What I mean to say, is wewanttoknowifyouwanttojoinglee."_

Blaine blinked in confusion. "What? You need to speak slower and more clearly, I have no idea what the hell you just said."

Kurt sighed before answering. _"Do you want to audition to join Glee Club? We're always looking for new members and now would be the perfect time."_

Glee Club? Kurt always managed to outdo himself when it came to asking questions that unnerved Blaine. He was't exactly the club type, unless it was fight club, and he didn't think Glee kids beat the crap out of each other every day. "I don't know, I'm not really the person for it."

_"But I thought you said you liked singing?"_

Damn Kurt and his good memory. "Well yeah, but that's different. I'd have to sing with a bunch of other people who don't like me."

_"Who said nobody in the club likes you? They barely know you."_

Well that excuse didn't work. How could he let Kurt down easy with this idea and still make sense? "I don't know-"

_"Just sleep on it, please? And just come with me after school Monday to audition if you decide to join. Pick out a song, and then just think about it. I won't be mad if you choose not to though. But give it a chance."_

Fuck, Kurt sounded adorable when he really wanted something. Why couldn't he want something less complicated? He was making it so hard for Blaine to not give in right away, and that wasn't good. But he could just say that he would think about it and then tell Kurt tomorrow that he decided not to join the club. That wasn't bad, right? No, that was smart. "Okay. I'll think about it and let you know tomorrow."

_"Yay! Thank you, Blaine! I have to go now because I think Finn just blew something up in the microwave and it's going to take me a while to get downstairs and find out, but I'll talk to you tomorrow."_

"Alright, bye."

_"Bye."_

Blaine hung up his phone and massaged his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He didn't know what to do. He knew what he _wanted _to do, and that was join the club because it would make Kurt happy and he wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, but he was also skeptical about the idea because he knew it wasn't what he _should _do. There were a lot of things to consider.

On the one hand, he had Kurt to think about. Although he and Kurt were still in the beginnings of their relationship, the other boy meant a great deal to Blaine. He made him want to be a better person, he brought out things in Blaine that he had hidden away and locked up for nobody to see for fear of their reactions. Blaine felt like a different person around Kurt, he allowed himself to really feel and go with his emotions around him when Blaine made sure to always keep up a tough and confident mask around everybody else. Blaine really, really cared about Kurt already, and he was the main reason Blaine considered joining.

Then there were the other kids at the school to think about. He couldn't have anyone thinking he was some softy who caved into anything his boyfriend said and follow him everywhere. He still had a reputation to hold up, after all. Nobody else could see the real him, and being in some club where everyone in it sings and dances was revealing a part of him. Of course Blaine liked music, loved it actually, but joining Glee could be a lethal move with repercussions he would have to deal with.

Cooper was also another problem. His older brother would tease him mercilessly for being in Glee Club, there was no doubt in that. Blaine would never hear the end of it, and Cooper was annoying enough when he had nothing to tease Blaine with. Did he really want to give Cooper more ammunition?

And then there was the fact that word of him joining the club could somehow get to the people he trained at the gym, and those people were the exact opposite of the type who liked kids singing show-tunes. It was already bad enough they knew he was gay, and he wasn't sure if it would be the wisest choice to add to anything. Did he truly want to jeopardize his job?

He couldn't win either way he looked at it.

Feeling defeated and tired, Blaine grabbed his iPod and earphones and randomly chose a playlist to put on shuffle. He shifted on his bed until he was comfortable, and then closed his eyes and listened to the music, paying close attention to the lyrics and hoping that it would distract him. It was the fourth song that came on that made Blaine snap his eyes open and seriously think about what Kurt said. The song was perfect. There were things he needed to tell Kurt that he hadn't yet, but he had been occasionally implying. It wasn't enough though, because Kurt was still hanging around him when he shouldn't be, even though Blaine wanted him to. And for the other kids in the club? They could think what they wanted to about it, it would be up to them.

Blaine decided that he would audition for Glee Club and use this song that would be the best bad move he's ever made. It would serve as a warning to people, especially Kurt.

* * *

"I'm so glad you decided to audition!" Kurt gushed to Blaine after school on Monday as the two walked to the choir room. Blaine had called him early Sunday morning to tell him that he'd be auditioning, but wouldn't tell Kurt what song he would sing no matter how much he pleaded. But what was important was that Blaine would be singing in only a few minutes time, and he had never heard Blaine sing before and was eager to find out how he sounded. Kurt was sure Blaine had a good voice though; his normal voice was smooth and riveting enough, and that could only be amplified singing.

"Yeah, we'll see how it goes," Blaine replied, opening the door for Kurt and following him to a pair of seats in the front row of the classroom.

"Oh, you'll do great. Don't worry."

Blaine nodded in agreement, but it wasn't performing well that he was thinking about, it was Kurt's reaction. He wondered if Kurt would realize what he was trying to explain, or if he would just think it was a random song he used for an audition. He was hoping it would be the former, or else it would be a bitch to explain in plain words.

The rest of the kids slowly trickled into the room, and after ten minutes everyone was there and the teacher who ran the club- Blaine couldn't remember his name- was calling for attention.

"Okay, so before we start I've been informed that we have someone new who wants to audition," Mr. Schuester said, clasping his hands together and letting his eyes fall on Blaine. "Do you have a song prepared..."

"Blaine Anderson," Blaine said as he stood up and swaggered to the front of the room, accepting the reassuring squeeze on his arm from Kurt before doing so. "And yes, I have a song ready."

"Great, the floor is yours. Good luck."

Mr. Schue went to sit in his regular chair, and Blaine whispered something to the band before going to stand in the middle of the room as they started playing the beginning music to the requested song. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to prepare himself for what he was about to do, eyes landing on Kurt when he opened them back up. This was it. Since Kurt couldn't tell this by himself, Blaine would let him know. Kurt might think that this was coming out of nowhere, but really, the signs were there since basically the beginning, Kurt was just too blind to see them.

Kurt frowned at the tune playing, because he'd heard it before, but couldn't remember where from. Then Blaine started singing, and while his voice was even more perfect than he'd ever imagined it could be and he hit the notes spot-on, the lyrics were a bit disconcerting. What was he getting at here? Blaine was looking like he was extremely conflicted, and that confused Kurt.

_"This is a cautionary cry to you  
Before you figure out what I've been turned into__"_

What did that even mean? Kurt met Blaine's gaze, and it was like he was trying to tell him something. But what? He thought things were finally fine between them. Was this Blaine's way of telling him that he was wrong?

However, a few lines later Kurt remembered the song, and he was shocked when he realized it. No. Blaine couldn't think that... could he? One look at Blaine said that he did though, and Kurt's heart sunk at that. This was bad. He needed to talk to Blaine as soon as he could, because there were some huge issues that needed to be addressed if Blaine meant what he was singing.

_"Did I ever think to tell you that I am a monster?  
You have never seen this side of me  
Maybe I should wear a warning that says that there's danger  
If you ever get too close to me"_

* * *

A/N:

Damn cliffhangers! I'm so sorry, I can't resist them! As you may guess, we get Blaine's past in the next chapter!

And well, I deeply apologize for this being late. My life has been sort of... hectic lately to say the least. If you want to have a clue about anything then please refer to the author's notes and basically the whole story of my other Klaine fic that I also started. But beware, there's a trigger warning in case you can't handle that kind of stuff. So yeah.

And also, I tend to write the chapters of this story in 500-1,200 word parts over the span of a few days and then put them together, and I was thinking that I could post the chapter fragments on my tumblr blog so you can read them early if you want to? I'll start doing that, and you can find the link to my tumblr on my profile page on here because it's not the same as my username on this website. So follow me or something and you'll get the story early :)

A HUGE thank you to my new followers/favoriters/reviewers: Lerastone1917, lucy641, katie-the-warbler, emcmorris831, xxDharmagrlxx, blainiac, Asleep-And-Awake, Klaine4533, klainelover2001, morethanhope, Ibesk42, goldconverse, ianyones, fiction-is-my-addiction, BananaBat18, xxKlaineEdoSherlockxx, jybrid, and Neverland-Gleek-Lost-In-Oz!

All the feedback means so much to me and I'm so grateful for all of it! It inspires me to write, so thank you!

Side Note: I am in the process of editing this whole story and have done the first three chapters which are already updated, and I'll continue with the rest when I get time. I feel that I can make this fic a lot better, so I'll be trying my best with that!

Oh, and the song I referred to here was Monster by Kris Allen.

I'll see you next chapter!

~CaramelApple74~


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